by James Corbett
September 10, 2023
from
CorbettReport Website
Remember way back in the year 2000, when the Taliban took over large
swaths of Afghanistan and set about eradicating the nation's poppy
crop that feeds the world opium supply?
Of course you do.
Well, guess what? It's happening again...
That's right.
After
Uncle Sam's ignominious
retreat from the graveyard of empires in 2021, the Taliban
infamously regained control of the country and set about
reinstituting their campaign to ban the cultivation of opium
poppies.
And, once again, the results of that ban have been nothing
short of remarkable.
In fact, the
Taliban's latest anti-poppy campaign is already
being hailed as the "most successful counter-narcotics effort in
human history" by self-proclaimed Afghanistan experts, with the
country's opium production down a jaw-dropping 90% this year.
And since you
do remember the story of the Taliban's first successful poppy
crop crackdown, then you'll also likely remember how it ended:
namely, with the blank check of 9/11 being cashed in on NATO's
invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, leading to the
subsequent resurgence of poppy cultivation in the country.
So, are we likely
to see history repeating with this next iteration of the Afghan
poppy story...?
Let's find out...
THE PAST
The tale of the
Afghan poppy war is one that can be read in the annals of the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), one of the many
bureaucratic arms of
the UN's globalist octopus.
"helping make
the world safer from drugs, organized crime, corruption and
terrorism" which apparently involves "supporting Member States
in implementing
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development",
...for some unexplained reason the UNODC has
diligently documented the
ups and downs of the Afghan poppy crop and its contribution to
the illicit opium market in recent decades.
They publish the
results of this research in the form of an annual "Afghanistan Opium
Survey," which tells the story in plain numbers.
In 1999, for
example, this UN office
informed the world that, after years of warfare and internal
strife (in which the
US played an integral part), Afghanistan's annual raw opium
production had risen to the unprecedented level of 4,600 metric
tons.
They were also
quick to add that,
"97 per cent of cultivation in 1999 occurred in
Taliban-controlled areas",
...implying that poppy cultivation was being
actively supported and encouraged by the Taliban in order to fund
illicit activities.
Strange, then, that
by the time of their
2001 Afghanistan Opium Survey - compiled just before the NATO
invasion and occupation of the country - the UNODC bean counters
(poppy counters?) were able to report that the country's total raw
opium production had dropped to 185 metric tons, a 96% reduction
from the record 1999 level.
So, what had
happened? The Taliban happened, that's what...
Specifically, in
July 2000, Mullah Mohammad Omar issued a fatwa declaring
the cultivation or trafficking of poppies to be "haram" (forbidden
under Islamic law).
The result of that
decree and its subsequent enforcement was so undeniable that not
even the arch-propagandists at the
Old Gray Presstitute or
the
Big Brother Corporation could cover it up.
As the charts make
clear, the Taliban's poppy ban was remarkably successful...
In fact, it was
too successful for those in the deep state who have been
managing and profiteering from the global drug trade since
the days of William Russell.
Afghanistan was providing more than
70% of the world's heroin supply at that time, and the
powers-that-shouldn't-be wanted those drugs flowing again.
And we all know
what happened next:
9/11...!
And, as we also know all too well, 9/11
led directly to the (completely
fraudulent) invocation of NATO's Article 5, the subsequent
invasion of Afghanistan, the overthrow of the Taliban and the
resurgence of the Afghan poppy crop.
As I've been at
pains to stress over the years, it would be far too simplistic to
suggest that 9/11 was simply a plot to get the world opium supply
growing and flowing again.
But the post-9/11
boom in Afghan poppy production - reaching
record high after
record high after
record high, as dutifully documented by the UNODC's narcotics
number crunchers - was certainly more than just a happy coincidence
for the 9/11 planners.
In fact, at a
certain point, the blatant reality of what had just happened -
namely, NATO's overthrow of a regime dedicated to eradicating the
poppy crop and its installation of a puppet government dedicated to
promoting it - became so undeniable that Uncle Sam's propagandists
simply stopped denying it.
Who can forget that
infamous
2010 Fox News below clip in which the mustachioed mouthpiece of the
money masters, Geraldo Rivera, interviews Lt. Col. Brian
Christmas in Helmand Province about how, even though it "grinds
his gut," the US military now has no choice but to guard the poor
Afghan poppy farmers' precious crop?
Yes, life was
pretty good for the profiteers of the drug trade in the deep state
in the wake of 9/11.
They had a
plentiful, cheap supply of poppies to feed the global opium trade
that they have been directing, protecting and profiting from since
the days of the Golden Triangle (The
Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia).
And what's more,
the whole racket was being protected by the US military at US
taxpayer expense! What could go wrong?
THE PRESENT
As we all know by
now, the US military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on
August 30, 2021.
By that point, the
Taliban - whose
dramatic summer surge led to their seizing Kabul in mid-August -
had already taken over the country.
And so it was that 20 years of
invasion, occupation, counter-insurgency operations, bloodshed and
terror had accomplished precisely nothing.
Well, not exactly
nothing...
As we've seen, the
NATO invasion and American occupation did afford the deep
state drug runners another two decades of record poppy crops to feed
the global heroin trade, with the UNODC
reporting in 2010 that,
"some 90% of
the world’s heroin comes from opium grown in just a few
provinces in Afghanistan."
It didn't take
long, however, for the Taliban to bring that poppy-fueled drug money
party to an abrupt halt.
In April of 2022,
Haibatullah Akhundzada - the Taliban's current leader and the
Supreme Leader of Afghanistan -
issued a decree much like the one issued by Mullah Mohammad Omar
in 2000:
All Afghans are
informed that from now on, cultivation of poppy has been
strictly prohibited across the country. If anyone violates the
decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator
will be treated according to the Sharia law.
Predictably enough,
this fatwa was greeted with cynicism and outright disbelief
in the West.
"opium
cultivation in Afghanistan increased by 32% over the previous
year to 233,000 hectares - making the 2022 crop the third
largest area under opium cultivation since monitoring began" and
warning that "seizures of opiates around Afghanistan indicate
that trafficking of Afghan opium and heroin has not stopped."
One had to read the
report's
accompanying press release, however, to discover that the 2022
crop had largely been exempted from Akhundzada's decree, and that
the real results of the Taliban's poppy ban would not be expected to
be seen until the 2023 crop was harvested.
This did not stop
Washington Beltway establishment repeaters like Foreign Policy
from immediately decrying the Taliban's poppy ban as mere political
theater.
"The Taliban
that took over Afghanistan after a 20-year war largely funded by
heroin trafficking have, after pretending to ban drugs, instead
turbocharged the cultivation and sale of narcotics a year after
their takeover",
...the
propaganda rag - which, strangely, had never shown a particular
interest in the practice of poppy cultivation before -
wrote the day after the UN report's release.
"the most
successful counter-narcotics effort in human history, according
to the volume of drugs taken off the market."
And how much was
that?
Estimates indicate that poppy cultivation plummeted an
astonishing 90% in the last year...
But, regardless of
how it happened, the US/NATO PR flaks who have spent the last two
decades pretending to care about the people of Afghanistan and
pretending to worry about the country's opium problem must be
rejoicing at this news, right...?
THE FUTURE?
Wrong, of course...
No, believe it or
not, the establishment is busy freaking out over the prospect of the
Taliban actually achieving what the UN/US/NATO neo-colonizers only
ever gave lip service to:
eradicating Afghanistan's poppy crop...
And how, exactly,
can they spin the Taliban's successful eradication campaign - the
same campaign that they were calling a total sham just months ago,
mind you - as a bad thing, you ask?
Well, the
arch-conspirators at Chatham House (aka
the CFR mothership in
London) have attempted to spin away the Taliban's amazing
accomplishment
by arguing that, yes,
the Taliban
have accomplished the previously unimaginable in virtually
eliminating poppy production in the country, but it's
actually just a grand ploy by the Taliban to trick people
into liking them by actually improving their country!
The cads! Don't
trust them..!
Besides, the last
poppy ban didn't last very long because of... some
unnamable reason... so this one probably won't either.
The
presstitutes at
Time, Filter, The
World and other pushers of approved propaganda, meanwhile,
have all (by some remarkable coincidence or other) simultaneously
hit upon the exact same talking point:
if Afghan poppy
farmers stop feeding the world heroin markets, then European
junkies will turn to Fentanyl...
So - wouldn't you
know it?
...cheap Afghan opium was actually a
good thing all
along, and by cutting off its supply the Taliban are the bad guys
once again!
His commentary
starts out by noting the remarkable success of the Taliban's poppy
ban, acknowledging that it was accomplished by a "sophisticated,
staged approach" that exempted the crop that was about to be
harvested, and pointing out that the current ban is actually even
more comprehensive than the Taliban's previous ban, as it prohibits
the trade and processing of opiates, not just poppy cultivation.
But Byrd is quick
to point out all of the ways that this remarkably successful
narcotics eradication program is actually bad for
Afghanistan (and the world!).
The country's poppy
farmers have lost $1 billion of revenue - revenue that, his analysis
fails to spell out, those farmers could have earned by feeding the
world heroin markets.
This economic
downturn, he writes,
will cause a migration crisis, with poor
farmers trying to cross the border in the hopes of making it to
Europe.
And this will all
lead to more heroin overdoses in Europe as dealers adulterate their
supply to offset rising costs.
So far, so
boilerplate.
It's where Byrd
ventures into "solutions" to this "problem" of decreasing opium
supplies that we start to see the dark specter of future
intervention at play.
In this final section, he raises the question
of an "international response" and then proceeds to list all of the
things that will not work.
The situation,
"may provide a
well-grounded justification for more humanitarian assistance" in
Afghanistan, but "this would just be a band-aid to provide
temporary relief unless and until the opium ban is rescinded or
undercut."
Programs offering
rural development aid "could be helpful" but,
"the modest
amounts of money involved will at best have a marginal impact."
And as for the
expected migrant crisis?
Well, there's no
help there, either.
"Trying to
block people flows at the Afghan border will work only
imperfectly, and to the extent it is successful will worsen
privation and hunger within the country."
All of these
negative points are meant to leave us with one overwhelming (and
unstated) conclusion:
this "problem"
will not be "solved" as long as the Taliban are in power...!
If only someone
could come along, depose the Taliban, and get the drugs flowing
again...
Of course, this
conclusion has to be left unsaid.
After all, Byrd's
analysis is being published by the "United States Institute of
'Peace'," a made-up, feel-good institution that, its "About"
page informs us, was,
"founded by
Congress and dedicated to the proposition that a world without
violent conflict is possible, practical and essential for U.S.
and global security."
All of which sounds
fine and dandy until you use the
globalese decoder ring to discover what a "world without violent
conflict" actually means to the Washington warhawks:
a world in
which every state in the world does what their US State
Department overlords tell them to do, no questions asked.
It seems the
Taliban haven't gotten the message.
And so, around we
go again on the seemingly never-ending regime change merry-go-round.
What
provocation will be used this time to motivate the people of the
world for another trip to the graveyard of empires?
Another
"catalyzing, catastrophic event" like 9/11 to pin on some
Al-CIA-da patsies?
Or something
that can tie I-CIA-sis to Russian operatives to American
homegrown domestic terrorists, perhaps?
Whatever it is, you
better believe it will be spectacular.
Those who are
interested in learning about the possible next steps in this
unfolding agenda may be interested, in watch
COVID-911 - From Homeland Security to Biosecurity, by video
editor extraordinaire Broc West and Ryan Cristián of The
Last American Vagabond.
Meanwhile, as
always,
the people of Afghanistan are dismissed by nearly everyone.
They are treated as mere
chessboard pawns who amount to little more than an afterthought
in the great game of empire.
And now, on the
verge of another 9/11 anniversary, here we are remarking yet again:
