opium

Well at least the Bush Administration has something positive to say about their military adventures. Oh, wait, opium isn’t positive.

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From CNN.com:

In a small district in southern Afghanistan, U.S.-backed Afghan drug forces opened fire on farmers who were blocking roads and throwing rocks to protest the destruction of their poppy fields earlier this year. Scores were injured in the firefight.

Undeterred by the violence, a group of angry farmers gathered around Masood Azizi, the Afghan official supervising the eradication. They maintained that cultivating poppy for opium is the only way they can survive. “We are hungry, thirsty, and we don’t have any money. We are in debt,” one said.

It’s a message that reverberates throughout this impoverished, war-torn country.  (more…)