UK Committee Reviews Afghanistan Progress

Over the last few weeks, this blog has had posts here and here covering the faltering war against the Taliban, by arguing that a mixture of the objectives would be detrimental to the primary objective. It appears that to roll together the primary objective of decisively defeating the Taliban and eradication of opium poppy growing is not prudent. This is because the Taliban is the legitimate military enemy, while opium poppy cultivation is a means for extracting livelihoods for a growing number of Afghanistan's farmers.

Paul Wood,reports here that the defense committee of the UK's house of Commons have issued a report that questions that approach too. Point six on that list is profoundly clear: "You can't fight the Taleban and opium at the same time."

It results in an unnecessary diversion that militarizes the war against opium, corruption and loss of public support for NATO forces. Fighting power and technological superiority does not help when the policy is incoherent. Defeat of the Taliban is not only possible but desirable while eradication of opium poppy is not NATO's war.