opium problem

The main problem today with opium is that it is fueling terrorists. Specifically, the fact that our anti-terrorist actions as a country are working counter-productively to fuel the hatred of the US and to fund the people who hate us. This problem really began after September 11 when president Bush declared a war on terror, which meant a war in Iraq, which meant occupying forces everywhere in the middle east, including Afghanistan. The occupying troops in Afghanistan and the occupation in general of the middle easy caused chaos and led to many taliban members to flee afghanistan to go into hiding. Before this happened, the Taliban controlled the production of opium very much like gangs control the distribution of drugs in America. With many Taliban members gone, more and more farmers could take up growing and selling Opium, the most lucrative thing to grow as a farmer. In addition, these farmers and others in Afghanistan began to change their ideological way of thinking. Farmers who were once very non-political or moderate have now gotten very angry that their homeland is being taken over by foreign forces, and now that they are making decent money selling opium, are more inclined to contribute some of their income to the Taliban and their Anti-American efforts.