In July 2008, there was an interesting exchange between Sir Peter Tapsell and Gordon Brown during the Prime Minister's Questions.
Mr. Tapsell asked. “This honorable gentleman's dark message to this country will continue for years to come as he and his successors, at Prime Minister's Questions, pay their condolences to the brave gentlemen and women who have gone before them. Should we understand this as representing the Taliban?'' The Taliban are not international terrorists, they are now primarily…Pakistan, Iraq, Britain. ”
Brown replied: “Gentleman, uh, let's get the Secretary of Defense on a trip to Afghanistan and see it for himself. What happened was that the Taliban fell from power and 40 countries were joined by 50,000 people. And as a result of what we've done, we went from having zero girls in Afghanistan to now having two million girls in education. I hope you will accept the invitation.”
It is very telling that he paused while deciding who to entrust this journey to.
why are they there?
Two and a half years later, British soldiers are still dying in Afghanistan. why? Why were NATO troops sent to Afghanistan? Was it to keep girls educated?
While Afghanistan was in Taliban hands, opium production declined from 3,656 tons in 2000 to 74 tons in 2001. After NATO troops moved in, opium production skyrocketed to well above 2000 levels. Is this a coincidence? NATO says footage of Western troops rampaging through poppy fields will force farmers into the hands of rebels.
The Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan at the beginning of this century was fundamentally anti-opium. Their position has changed somewhat since the invasion by NATO forces. There is a change of government within the Taliban, and new leaders feel comfortable using the opium trade to support the insurgency.
Source United Nations World Drug Report
Unfortunately, the British military has been forced into the role of guardian of this work by British politicians. British troops were deployed to Helmand, and it was in Helmand that the real increase in opium production occurred. In 2004-2005, 72,000 acres of fields were growing opium. By 2008, its area had increased to more than 250,000 acres.
wiki leak
Last December, WikiLeaks published a memo from the Office of Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). This memo was written by John Walters in April 2007. He writes:
(C/NOFORN) (Confidential — not to be seen by foreigners) ONDCP Director Walters met with COM ISAF (Commander International Security Assistance Force) General McNeil (American) in Kabul and separately RC Meeting with Confederate commander Major General Van Loon (in Dutch) at Kandahar. Mr. McNeil told Mr. Walters that there had been a lot of movement on counter-narcotics, but very little progress. He was particularly disappointed in Britain's efforts. They messed up in Helmand, their tactics were wrong, and the deal London made with Musa Qala failed. This agreement opened the door to drug traffickers in the region, and it was now impossible to tell the difference between traffickers and rebels. He said Britain could and should do more because it had the biggest stake.
The Musa Qala agreement mentioned in the memo was an agreement with the Taliban under which our troops would withdraw from Musa Qala, a major drug-trafficking hub in Helmand. In return, the Taliban agreed not to attack International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces in the region. But as a result, drug traffickers are now free to do whatever they want. The rebels eventually regained full control of the area.
In April last year, Afghan parliamentarian Nasimeh Niazi announced that foreign forces were involved in drug production and trafficking, and that the British military was training scores of experts in opium cultivation. “As long as foreign forces are present in Afghanistan, drug cultivation, production and trafficking will continue in this country,” she said, adding that heroin production labs in Helmand, where there were none before, are now numerous and open in the open. He added that he is active.
In an interview with the Australian magazine Profile on January 27, 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, until recently the Director-General of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said: For example, in the second half of 2008, liquidity was the biggest problem in the banking system and therefore this (drug flow) liquid capital became important. element. “
He emphasized this statement on the UNODC website, saying: “As the banking crisis disrupts lending, these cash-rich criminal groups have emerged as the only source of credit.”
In reality, the “war on terror” is the Third Opium War. Just as the British East India Company ran the opium trade on behalf of the City of London in the late 18th and 19th centuries, today criminals supported by the City of London run the drug trade, this time for example by channeling funds through the Middle East. Cleaning is in progress. offshore financial centers like Dubai and Saudi Arabia, and the Cayman Islands; This funding is key to avoiding the complete collapse of the monetary financial system of the past three years. This is a war that British troops are fighting and dying for. And all the while they are out of the country, this country continues to be destroyed from within by gangs.
