This week, former State Department counter-narcotics official Thomas Schweich wrote a bitter piece in the New York Times Magazine about how his attempts at fighting the opium trade in Afghanistan were undermined by everyone. I did my best to unravel this man’s grand delusions.
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This guy’s a law professor? That’s frightening! Forget Afghanistan, he could fuck up something important, like a first-year law student’s understanding of what due process is.
Afghanistan is a tribal area, not a nation. Here’s how tribes work: “You no me tribe, me kill you!” If this guy thinks Afghanistan has a government he’s gotta be smoking something.
Quote of the Week
“McCain claims to be strongest on national security, but not many among military brass are standing up and endorsing McCain. They don’t like him. They see him as a hothead flyboy, and he never worked the bureaucracy to win them over. …
“McCain has made enemies in the military just as he has on Capitol Hill. ‘When he wants something, he pulls the same thing on us he does on senators,’ says one high-ranking military commander, referring to McCain’s well-known temper. …
“The commander-in-chief category is the only area where McCain is ahead … [but] if McCain is the favorite of the national-security community and the military, where are the generals standing with him?”
(Source: Newsweek; quoted under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Hey wingies, if you don’t like sucking on that, how about sucking a rabbit popsicle? For a good time, call 1-900-LICK-ROG. All proceeds go to the Help Roger Rabbit Live Like A Republican Fund.
3
Rog does have a point, McCain is probably weaker with the fighting men and women than republicans past. I could see him getting as low as 70% for support and votes among the soldiers on the ground. In the end though I believe he will get a more typical 80-85% of the fighting man’s vote. Good point rabbit.
@4
I’m going to laugh at your ass when McCain pulls a solid 40-45% of the military vote.
There ya go doggy, chew on that slipper.
6
heheeh
Too bad he doesn’t have that kind of support in America. hahahaha
Lee we are fighting for success in Afghanistan but it has little to do with drugs even if it supports this nation enemies. The use of the expression “War on Drugs” is pretty much a bust as long as Roger Rabbit and his friends consume drugs on a daily bases. If Roger likes to blame Bush on the drug problem in Afghanistan then you have to blame Clinton for the drug problems from Albania when he invaded Serbia. Now Lee who do we now blame for all those drugs coming from Mexico? Maybe the USER’s are the ones supporting the wars all over the world? Now does that mean everybody in your neighborhood does not use drugs? Maybe Obama can create real change by making it legal and give it away free to fix the problem like China. Don’t worry Roger you will still get your drugs free event if the law is not change. You know all Government workers always gets their med’s free.
Afghanistan:
world’s largest producer of opium; poppy cultivation increased 17% to a near-record 202,000 hectares in 2007; good growing conditions pushed potential opium production to a record 8,000 metric tons, up 42% from last year; if the entire opium crop were processed, 947 metric tons of heroin potentially could be produced; drug trade is a source of instability and the Taliban and other antigovernment groups participate in and profit from the drug trade; widespread corruption impedes counterdrug efforts; most of the heroin consumed in Europe and Eurasia is derived from Afghan opium; vulnerable to drug money laundering through informal financial networks; regional source of hashish
Albania:
increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route and – to a lesser extent – cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; limited opium and growing cannabis production; ethnic Albanian narco-trafficking organizations active and expanding in Europe; vulnerable to money laundering associated with regional trafficking in narcotics, arms, contraband, and illegal aliens
Mexico:
major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium poppy in 2005 amounted to 3,300 hectares yielding a potential production of 8 metric tons of pure heroin, or 17 metric tons of “black tar” heroin, the dominant form of Mexican heroin in the western United States; marijuana cultivation decreased 3% to 5,600 hectares in 2005 – just two years after a decade-high cultivation peak in 2003 – and yielded a potential production of 10,100 metric tons; government conducts the largest independent illicit-crop eradication program in the world; continues as the primary transshipment country for US-bound cocaine from South America, with an estimated 90% of annual cocaine movements towards the US stopping in Mexico; major drug syndicates control majority of drug trafficking throughout the country; producer and distributor of ecstasy; significant money-laundering center; major supplier of heroin and largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the US market
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2086.html
Jane. I sure saw a lot of soldiers booing Obama in Iraq the other day. Man the crowds of booing hissing troops was really impressive. All them hecklers too!
Got Hope?
I’m very, very disappointed that Sen. McCain has seen fit to exploit our wounded soldiers by using them for a partisan attack ad. Moreover, the ad is false; the reason Obama didn’t visit the military hospital is because the Pentagon — which controls access to the hospital — objected to his visit. Obama did the right thing by staying away so the soldiers wouldn’t be dragged into a political campaign. McCain did the exact opposite: He dragged them into the campaign.
For McCain to turn this into an outright lie that Obama doesn’t care about the troops proves that McCain has no honor and can’t be trusted with the power of the presidency. And when he lies about something like this, he certainly can’t be trusted to tell us the truth about issues of war and peace. McCain is not intellectually or morally fit to be president.
@8 klake has accused me of doing drugs “on a daily basis.” Of course I do! I’m taking 2 daily medications my doctor prescribed for me.
Meanwhile, the best way to deal with a deranged fool like klake is to ask him to step out of the car, get on his knees, place his heads behind his head, and lace his fingers.
The police will handle it from there.
Obama looked very impressive on his foreign tour. He is being treated like a president. Bush? They consider him a mad dog.
I, er, um, uh, I …
While Obama looks and sounds presidential on the Berlin podium where JFK and Reagan made their reputations, Sen. McCain tries to explain away an embarrassing series of gaffes that make him look like an escapee from an Alzheimer’s ward.
Newsweek: “You’ve taken heat lately for a string of misstatements about foreign-policy issues. Some news reports have suggested your age could be slowing you down. How do you explain those gaffes?
Sen. McConfused: “I spend most of my days with town-hall meetings and with people — people like you. And occasionally there will be a misstatement. … But I’m not complaining. It’s fine with me. The American people know me.”
Source: http://www.newsweek.com/id/148960 (Quoted under fair use.)
While Obama looks and sounds presidential on the Berlin podium where JFK and Reagan made their oratorical reputations, McCain tries to explain away an embarrassing series of gaffes that make him look like a geezer who wandered away from an Alzheiner’s ward.
Newsweek: “You’ve taken heat lately for a string of misstatements about foreign-policy issues. Some news reports have suggested your age could be slowing you down. How do you explain those gaffes?”
Sen. McSenile: “I spend most of my days with town-hall meetings and … occasionally there will be a misstatement. … But I’m not complaining. It’s fine with me. The American people know me.”
(Quoted under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Boy, do we ever know him … !
It has been nearly 7 years since the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, yet 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden is still at large, and you never hear Republicans talk about capturing him.
I think they just don’t care. I don’t think they ever did.
Just legalize heroin and get over it.
TLG
Roger Rabbit spews:
It has been nearly 7 years since the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, yet 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden is still at large, and you never hear Republicans talk about capturing him.
I think they just don’t care. I don’t think they ever did.
Roger how many years have the Serbs been looking for its’ War criminals? Yes the country is smaller today and many places to hide in downtown Belgrad. The last I heard Osama was living right next door to you. Funny all they have to do is live in a city that gives sactuary to criminals.
Uh, “Facts”?
You just saw booing and hissing troops in Iraq? Really?
I hadn’t realized that you were currently serving in Iraq, although I’m quite surprised that members of the military would act in such a way towards a sitting Senator.
While respectful disagreement is certainly allowed, acts of disrespect such as that are frowned on in the military. The troops involved are certainly violating orders, and as such, could be prosecuted under the UCMJ.
(Not Article 88, as is often assumed, as that article only applies to commissioned officers, and only to certain government officials.)
I’m wondering what “troops” might be so undisciplined and unruly that they would boo and hiss a sitting US Senator.
Perhaps they were from Blackwater or KBR. Regardless, I’m pleased to hear that at least one of our righties finally found the courage to actually volunteer to serve our country.
You are serving in Iraq, right?
@ 17. John Barelli spews:
Uh, “Facts”?
I took Facts’ post @ 9 to be a tongue in cheek, facetious comment in response to the jane-dog.
I could be wrong, but that’s what it looked like to me.
FricknFrack:
On further reflection, I think you’re right.
I’m often away from the cesspool for days or weeks at a time, as I actually have to work for a living, and sometimes, I’m pretty busy.
Occasionally, I confuse the players. I should keep a roster.
Looking back, I seem to remember “Facts” as actually being a pretty reasonable poster, rather than one of our resident wingnuts.
Facts, you have my sincere apology. Mia culpa, mia culpa, mia culpa.
@19
Yeah, klake is playing the role of ‘deranged, incoherent nutjob’ in this particular comment thread. :)
Have another toke there Lee; but before you do, realize that nothing ever crosses your tiny little mind other than drugs/narcotics. Seems like a pathetic, simple little existence to me. Try Amsterdam and quit whining already.
I guess it’s safe to say that Goldy suffers from the “Audacity of Hoplessness”, as do all liberals.
As for McCain and his faculties, at least he realizes there are less than “57 states”, which Obama can’t say the same………Seems the boy needs a civics lesson.
McCain only has one state – the state of confusion. Rick is so pathetically stupid that all he can come up with is one mistatement by Obama that was corrected right away. Everone can clearly see that McCain is way behind in the intelligence department.
Sorry Rick – as usual you have nothing. It is your candidate that is CONSTANTLY confusing things like borders (Iraq and Pakistan?), presidents (Putin is NOT president of Germany), sunni and shia, how social security works, when the surge started and how many troops are currently in Iraq. And McCain was SUPPOSED to be strong on foreign policy – but he can’t seem to keep anything straight – as soon as he opens his mouth gaffes and lies keep flying out. Pathetic.
@21
You might want to go back to the early days of my original blog. I almost never wrote about drugs. In fact, I only started writing about the drug war once I began to fully grasp the damage that it does to the world on a large scale, from Afghanistan to Mexico to Colombia to our own cities. One day, when you grow up, maybe you’ll start to grasp some of this stuff too.
@24 Lee:
No, you just became a hard-core pot-head. You’re the one that needs to grow up; most of us let our “pot” phase fizzle out after college.
@25
No, you just became a hard-core pot-head.
I did? Where are you getting this information from, Barney the Dinosaur?
You’re the one that needs to grow up; most of us let our “pot” phase fizzle out after college.
So did I, to an extent. I smoke far, far less than I used to. But I still enjoy it, primarily because I understand that the key to everything in life is moderation. As I said, when you grow up, you’ll hopefully understand this stuff.