Afghanistan

I listened yesterday to news reporting on the Afghanistan presidential elections, and I thought of the national structures there which appear to me to be corrupt, to a greater or lesser extent. It made me think of an article, written by a Frenchman, I think, three or four years ago, which seemed to me to make a lot of sense, in which he suggested that the effort in Aghanistan should be geared to promoting traditional agriculture.

He explained that the country's true economic base is agriculture. The problem is that Afghanistan also has the capacity to grow enormous quantities of 'recreational' drugs, ninety percent of the demand for cocaine and heroine, I think. The war-lords need the drug money in order to maintain their private armies, and there are no doubt many others who profit handsomely from the drug proceeds. The British were, once upon a time, smart enough to know where the value of force ended, and The Russians, very recently, admitted defeat in Afghanistan. Now America is spearheading a war effort costing billions, and many innocent lives, even with their recent history in Iraq and Vietnam

Is it impossible to conceive of an attempt to introduce an agricultural alternative to cultivating drugs? It would have to be piecemeal, I understand, and would require military protection. The concept makes sense to me.