Opium Crops Destroyed, Child Brides Multiply

I'm going to assume that drug czar John P. Walters does not deliberately attempt to let little girls get fucked by pedophiles. Nonetheless, that's what Mr. Walters' policies are accomplishing in Afghanistan. The man seems to have a certain lack of empathy for other people's children, as I've argued before — especially if those children are living in third-world countries whose denizens Mr. Walters will never have to face, let alone answer to.

Here's what Mr. Walters does in order to — accidentally, mind you — promote child rape. He and his fellow federal drug warriors are urging the authorities in Afghanistan to destroy poppy fields. That means they are in effect encouraging drug traffickers and loan sharks to swoop in and legally take the affected farmers' prepubescent daughters as their fuck toys. Newsweek explains:

Khalida's father [Sayed Shah] has spent much of his life raising opium, as men like him have been doing for decades in the stony hillsides of eastern Afghanistan and on the dusty southern plains. It's the only reliable cash crop most of those farmers ever had. Even so, Shah and his family barely got by: traffickers may prosper, but poor farmers like him only subsist. ...

The family's heartbreak began when Shah borrowed $2,000 from a local trafficker, promising to repay the loan with 24 kilos of opium at harvest time. Late last spring, just before harvest, a government crop-eradication team appeared at the family's little plot of land in Laghman province and destroyed Shah's entire two and a half acres of poppies. ... Shah took his case before a tribal council in Laghman and begged for leniency. Instead, the elders unanimously ruled that Shah would have to reimburse the trafficker by giving Khalida to him in marriage. Now the family can only wait for the 45-year-old drugrunner to come back for his prize. Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible. "It's my fate," the child says.

Khalida is said to be nine years old.

Ponder that. Nine. Years. Old.

As she is sexually assaulted god knows how many times over the next five or ten or twenty years, she can perhaps take solace from the fact that John P. Walters, for one, believes that collateral damage like widespread child rape among Afghanis is a small price to pay to stop Americans from getting high.

Comments

[Cynical prof]

Walters would probably say you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.

[Hunter]

Yeah, people frequently turn to trite little phrases like that when they're not able to sufficiently defend their beliefs and positions. It makes people look smarter, see?

[Hermes Ten]

I think you're giving Walters too much credit in that you suggest, at least tacitly, that his actions are the product of an intent to eliminate opium production. I think what is really happening is that Mr. Walters is interested in eliminating just some opium production --stopping unfavored producers so that the guys on "our side" can make a bigger buck.

The US government is the world's No.1 drug trafficker. Being able to grow and export opium is a reward granted by the US government to those providing us with "indispensable services." And drug sales in general are a wonderful way to finance "Black" and other covert ops. But in order to maximize the revenue from these sales you have to control the supply as much as possible.

[Windypundit]

I recently blogged an opinion piece in which I said the War On Drugs was "as evil as witch burnings and slavery and Kristallnacht."

This story may be the first link I'll send to anyone who claims I was exaggerating.

[George Arndt]

Oxycontin has effects virtually identical to heroin. But, it's perfectly legal, with a prescription. In facts, a growing number of junkies are it taking instead of heroin. A growing number of youth are grinding Ritalin into powder and snorting it, instead of Cocaine. If people don’t use one way to get high, they will simply find another. (Like in “South Park” last week)

http://www.southparkstudios.com/news/3411

If the government wants to lesson drug use, they should spend money on treatment, not at a futile attempt to eliminate all drug crops.

[Hermes Ten]

Windy, I think you're operating off a false premise: that the government wants to reduce drug use. I think the evidence clearly shows that they don't, in fact, want to reduce drug use. They like the usage level at just about where it is right now.

The "drug war" has even greater political and economic benefits than the "GWOT." It has just about completely gutted the Constitution. It keeps lots of people employed. It keeps our prisons full of marginalized people and helps keep the "unemployment" rate down by keeping these marginalized people off the job market. It increases State power and helps instill obedience. And it's a great way of financing covert operations, rewarding friends, and punishing enemies.

[smurfy]

"Oxycontin[...]it's perfectly legal, with a prescription."

Less and less legal everyday. Richard Paey, Dr Rottshaefer, and now Dr. Steven Schneider.

[smurfy]

Also- kind of a bad time for Americans to be criticizing another nation's credit markets.

But this is a wicked way to implement price controls.

[Rob Taylor]

Do you guys really think that if there were opium crops there wouldn't be child brides? Really?

Weren't there stories of child brides in Afghanistan in mags like Time decades ago?

Legalization of drugs and child exploitation are two different issues. While we can argue about legalization it is bad form to say the least to imply that these girls would be treated like western women and happy if only the opium still grew free. It minimizes the sufering and plight of children being exploited by barbaric, backward cultures where little girls are seen as objects to be traded and molested.

[Rogier]

Rob:

Nobody's saying that, if poppies were allowed to thrive, these young girls would be treated as well as their Western counterparts. But yes, the ability to make a living with a viable cash crop would once again lift these families above subsistence levels. And yes, that would have an impact on the number of child brides.

As a rule, well-to-do Afghani families do not need to sell their children to survive.

[runcible]

"... collateral damage like widespread child rape among Afghanis is a small price to pay to stop Americans from getting high."

Maybe I'm just a very cold person, with a twisted sense of humor... but, I think that would make the perfect bumper sticker or T-shirt.

Sums up the insanity of the drug war perfectly, IMO.