| | Poppy Seeds of Discontent The Washington Post
07/11/2007
By Peter Carlson
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From Afghanistan, a Sobering Look at the Eradication Game
Driving around Afghanistan in a white Ford pickup truck, heading off to rip up some farmer's poppy fields, David Lockyear, an American contractor with a goatee and lots of tattoos, was having a blast.
"This is redneck heaven," he said. "You get to run around the desert on ATVs and pickups, shoot guns and get paid for it. Man, it's the perfect job!"
The next day, the job got a little tougher when Taliban guerrillas ambushed American eradicators, starting a four-hour firefight that left at least eight people dead. Caught in the middle of the battle was one of the world's best war correspondents, Jon Lee Anderson, who lived to tell the tale in a terrific but disturbing story in the July 9 and 16 issue of the New Yorker.
Anderson has spent much of this millennium covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in dispatches published first in the New Yorker and then in his widely praised books "The Lion's Grave" and "The Fall of Baghdad." He's a brave, smart reporter with a great eye for detail and a straightforward writing style that gives the reader a feel of what it's like to be there. His portrait of the current state of the war in Afghanistan will not leave you feeling optimistic.
In 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan, driving out the Taliban regime that had sheltered Osama bin Laden while he plotted the 9/11 attacks. But in the last two years, the Taliban has made a comeback and now controls large portions of the country. Their resurgence was bankrolled by an alliance with the opium trade: The Taliban protects farmers from the U.S.-backed opium eradication program, Anderson writes, in return for a cut of the profits.
This spring, Anderson hooked up with a team of 40 Americans working for DynCorp, a Virginia-based company hired by the U.S. government to help eradicate the Afghan opium crop, which happens to be the main source of cash for many of the country's farmers. On the first day, the Americans, aided by some Afghan policemen, started tearing up fields of opium poppies while the local farmers watched, sullen and angry.
"You've made a big mistake," one farmer told them.
That statement proved prophetic. The next day, as the Americans continued ripping up fields, they were attacked by Taliban fighters and driven from the area. For the next 10 days, the Americans stayed in their camp, lifting weights, watching DVDs and surfing the Web.
Anderson used this lull to go out and do some reporting, talking to farmers, politicians and foreign observers. He learned that the poppy eradication program was rife with corruption. Farmers who were politically connected -- or bribed the right people -- were allowed to continue growing poppies. Farmers without clout were liable to have their crops destroyed.
After their 10-day lull, the American contractors were sent back to the area where they had been ambushed, just to prove that they couldn't be scared off. Protected by police, they destroyed one poppy field. But when they set out to destroy a far richer field across the road, the police balked and promptly departed, going off to -- and here's a great little detail -- smoke hashish.
Without police protection, the Americans fled, angry but impotent. "We ought to take all those guys and hang them in public, beginning with the governor," one American contractor grumbled. Then he laughed. "Good thing I'm not an idealist -- I'm just here for the money."
If Anderson's account is accurate, and I suspect it is, the war in Afghanistan won't be over anytime soon.
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