Should the poppy fields in Afghanistan be bombed?

Answer 1

If you want to put the liberals out of business that would be the way to go about it!

Answer 2

I don't like to admit this , but I am baffled by this one.
I was 'shocked' 'horrified' and 'amazed' etc, last week when I discovered that Afghanistan is growing and supplying 93% of the worlds main drug. 93% can you belive that?
So being outraged by all this info, I asked a similar question to yours.
I wasnt asking about hand to hand battles just long range bombs, incendary bombs or whatever to burn these filds down to the ground.
By all means tell all civilians, farmers and whatever that on such and such a day your land will be obliterated, they can move out or die with the fields, let the Taliban look after them.
They have all been offered alternative income to stop growing this killer stuff, some tried it some didnt bother, but all are frightened to death of the Taliban!
We all know the Taliban are making the biggest sums of cash from these farms, we all know what they are spending this money on.
The main answers I got in reply were along the lines of, 'the allies cant do the job' Russia has tried it etc etc!
I'm no military general, but to my (simple) mind the question arises what the f*ck are we doing there in the first place if we cant even bomb a few fields out of the world.
Can I accept that we cant bomb a few fields beyond use?
No I cant, if I believe that then I must also believe that we (the allies) are wasting our time all over the world, lets just pack it all up then and try to retreat with a bit of dignity?????
Then when it's all over get a few of these generals and military advisors and politlcal leaders , and .string the bloody lot up for suggesting that we even tried!!!
We are talking about human lives being lost here, not a gamble on the stock market.
Argaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
OK I feel a bit better now, another vodka and I'll be fine.
On the other hand I may take a walk up to the pub nd see if any one fancies being filled in!!

Answer 3

Yes. The only government allowed to have poppy fields to monopolize a huge chunk of the pharmaceutical industry; nuclear energy and weapons of mass destruction to concentrate power by force and terrorism, is the United States. We should bomb the hell out of the poppy fields in Afghanistan even if it makes the United States government look like sickening greed hungry bastards. We must dictate to other countries what to do in all aspects. That's what the United Nations is for.

Answer 4

Reluctantly no.

Poppy growing is just about the only thing that the subsistance farmers and peasants in rural Afghanistan can do that makes them any money.

Destroy the poppys and you destroy the only source of income for already desperately poor people. You would also destroy the last drops of any public support for the western military being there. Which would then make their position even more dangerous and difficult as the people would be likely to more actively support and assist the taliban.

Sometimes things aren't just that simple.

Answer 5

What a great idea. Let me see if this fits in with other brilliant top ten ideas from the minds of the right wingers.

1 - Arm the Taliban, again.

2 - Kill Iraqi children and bomb their cities to teach them a lesson.

3 - Put protesters against the war in cages and keep them out of sight of the president.

4 - Tap our phones illegally and with impunity.

5 - make suspects disappear and torture them outside the country.

6 - ignore the Geneva conventions.

7 - Lie to the public about the reasons to go to war after all they tried to kill our presidents daddy.

8 - Give massive tax breaks to the oil companies while they are making record and historical profits.

9 - change the bankruptcy laws to hammer the working people and bolster the bottom line of our banks.

10 - use our military to torture prisoners in Iraq and completely destroy our credibility with the rest of the world. pressure a investigative news program to suppress the pictures before the news can be published.

Yup - precious ideas that fit in well with your poppy bombing notion.

Answer 6

I had a friend (Iranian) who served his time in the military (in Iran) and his job was to guard the poppy fields. Bombing will only make holes in the ground.

Answer 7

The government was mowing them down last spring but apparently they missed quite a few. I would think they could just burn them but I don't know whether the fire would just burn down the whole area or not. I think we've caused enough damage to their infrastructure and killed enough citizens. There was talk of the U.S. government buying the poppy seeds from the farmers and destroying them at that point. They don't get much money for it and it is cheaper than trying to destroy them all, plus the farmer still has some revenue.

Answer 8

I'm not into giving the Taliban such a perfect recruiting tool as taking away the livelihood of thousands of farmers, and letting them know America did it.

The only answers are crop-replacement programs, or as a previous answer said, buying medicinal opiates from them. Not a bad idea, building chemical processing plants to create legal drugs, thereby creating industry and even more jobs.

Answer 9

No because the US has their nose stuck in too much of everyones business already to be going and worrying about what is growing in some fields which is none of our business in the first place let the countrys own government handle their issues and not be wasting my tax dollars.

Answer 10

No. Helping them find as lucrative a crop as their poppy fields would work.

Answer 11

They should ceratinly be destroyed, but we should also give the local farmers an alternative source of income. What they need is a cash crop to replace the opium and that is not easy.