U.S. to target Taliban drug traffic

By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A stepped-up anti-drug-trafficking effort is emerging as a key part of a broad Bush administration revision in strategy for the war in Afghanistan, U.S. officials say.
The strategy review comes as U.S. forces face increased violence in Afghanistan and reflects a growing consensus that drug trafficking has become essential to a Taliban resurgence.

"I don't think we appreciated how fast the Taliban was coming back when it got drug money," said Dell Dailey, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator. "You can build an army real fast if you've got money in your pocket."

The fundamentalist Taliban ruled Afghanistan and harbored al-Qaeda terrorists until the regime was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

More than 90% of the world's opium poppy crop came from Afghanistan last year, according to a United Nations report. The Pentagon estimates the Taliban makes $60 million to $80 million a year from drug trafficking.

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The administration's strategic review is likely to be completed after the election.

Some strategy adjustments are already being made. At the urging of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, NATO defense ministers authorized a counternarcotics role this month for their forces in Afghanistan.

It is limited to targeting drug networks supporting the Taliban, and the operations would be conducted alongside Afghan forces. It does not involve eradication of the poppy crop.

Washington is considering expanding anti-drug efforts further.

"What we probably need to do is highlight the problem this drug movement into Europe presents to the Europeans and get" greater involvement in counternarcotics efforts, Dailey said.

The military has to be careful to strike a balance in fighting the drag trade. Alienating poppy farmers could hurt efforts to win over the population, since the poppy is such a large portion of the economy.

The key is to target the trafficking and not the farmers, said Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University.

Afghanistan has been "drifting toward becoming a narco-state," said James Jones, a retired Marine general who served as commander of NATO forces through 2006.

There have been 251 coalition deaths in Afghanistan this year, compared with 232 for all of last year, according to icasualties.org, a website that tracks war deaths.

"There will definitely be some adjustments" in U.S. strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, said retired general Jack Keane, a key architect of the Iraq troop escalation strategy and close adviser to Gen. David Petraeus.

Among the likely changes: More U.S. troops will go to Afghanistan as they draw down in Iraq, the Afghan army will expand, and the coalition will step up efforts to work with tribes.

Washington also wants to help Pakistan stop militants in the tribal region that borders Afghanistan, which has become a Taliban safe haven.