Opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 4,000% since the start of the US/UK/Others occupation. 4,000%. Really. For the first time, this year production of processed opium exceeded 7,500 tons. This industrial manufacture would be impossible without the active participation both of the puppet government we installed, and the command structures of our intelligence services. The Karzai and Dostum families, alongside other of our clients, have become terribly wealthy. Secret funds of intelligence services have swelled.
Opium production amounts to a staggering 60% of Afghanistan’s GDP. Yet we have that pompous fool Jon Simpson on the BBC opining what a great success our occupation was, how Afghanistan is transformed.
The UK spent 37 billion pounds of money we do not have on the occupation of Afghanistan, when our health service is creaking and hungry children are reliant on foodbanks. That 37 billion is a drastic underestimate – it is based on “marginal costing”, the extra cost of operating the troops and equipment in Afghanistan compared to the cost of keeping them on Salisbury Plain. The fact you would not need this massive offensive army and all that equipment, were you not conducting worldwide simultaneous invasions, is not taken into account at all. The true cost of the Afghan occupation is many times higher than 37 billion.
Bear that in mind when you see Cameron posturing about a routine EU subscription cost of 1.7 billion. There are unlimited funds for attacking and occupying Johnny Foreigner, but money spent on co-operation with other nations is an absurd waste. A view to be reinforced by increasing racist rhetoric about being “swamped” by the Eastern Europeans who are now adding so much to our economy and our culture.
There is an irony here because one of the major reasons for the EU contribution recalculation was the UK government’s decision to include, for the first time, an estimate for illegal trade – in drugs and prostitution – in UK GDP figures, thus producing a spurious blip in economic growth. Prostitution alone was estimated at 6.5 billion pounds, which makes it one of our major industries, while the drugs figure was still higher and represented a direct contribution to UK GDP from the result of our Afghan occupation.
So it was all worthwhile after all! Those soldiers did not die in vain! When you add to that, the fact that the prostitution figure itself is boosted by the many unfortunates, mostly women, who enter the trade to fund a heroin habit, you have a perfect circle of serendipity.
Who can possibly claim that UK policy is unplanned and immoral?
Juteman
“I believe Jon Simpson likes his women young.
Isn’t his wife about 60 years younger than him?”
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What a ridiculous statement. It’s as ridiculous as saying that Juteman is the toy boy of a rich 75 year old widow, whom he has to satisfy three times a week in exchange for the wherewithall.
Ass!
So no actual examples available of the “increasing racist rhetoric about being “swamped” by the Eastern Europeans”, apparently.
Might be as well, Craig, to revise the text by omitting that piece of anti-British racism.
“What a ridiculous statement. It’s as ridiculous as saying that Juteman is the toy boy of a rich 75 year old widow, whom he has to satisfy three times a week in exchange for the wherewithall. ”
Your mother never told me she was rich, and she doesn’t look 75.
Her arsehole is quite tight for an old bint. 🙂
Former Defence Secretary John Reid, now Baron Reid of Cardowan was reputed to have said the British army might be able to do the Helmland deployment in Afghanistan in 2006 “without a single bullet being fired”, that was a little optimistic, it was documented that 4 million bullets were fired in just one year. Just to rub it in, Baron Reid of Cardowan was a no voter in the recent referendum in Scotland.
I never thought I’d see Craig rely on the Wail.
Typical of the Wail’s sensationalist approach 2000-2001 was not a typical year for heroin production under the Taliban, they reduced the acreage under poppy cultivation by 99% that year. Cynics claim it was a ploy to keep the price up after a bumper crop in 1999-2000 when 4,500 tons was produced but that wouldn’t make such a good story would it?
I also wonder how much effect that £37 billion would’ve had on food prices over the past 13 years as it’s almost the same as the amount the UK spends importing food every year.
I’m sorry for mentioning your mothers arse, Habba.
In my defence, her arse is much more interesting than your average comments.
At least her arse has hidden depths. A clinker is a worthy subject of meditation.
Are you a drug dealer Kempe?
The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan for opium and Caspian oil was planned several months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks which were part of Bush Zionist administration to fuel anti-Muslim feelings among the Judeo-Christian Americans and the rest of the western world.
America’s “war on Terrorism” is as phony as its “War on Drugs”. United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), in its Report 2007, has admitted that the growth of opium cultivation in Afghanistan under US Alliance since 2002, has risen to 93% from just 6% under Taliban rule.
According to Australia’s National Drug Research Institute, about 100,000 people die per year from opium related drugs – which means, thanks to ZOG in Washington, one million people have died since the regime-change in Afghanistan took place in December 2001.
However, there is more to Afghanistan’s occupation than meet the eyes. Under Reza Shah dynasty, Iran played the transit role for opium produced in Afghanistan, India and some part of Iran and Turkey. The drug smugglers were under the protection of Shah’s Mossad-CIA trained special force, SWAK. In early 1980s, Imam Khomeini banned the cultivation of poppy and drug in Iran. Later-on USSR occupied Afghanistan and the conbined result was that drug barrons, working for the Jewish-controlled world drug empire – had to shift their capital and infrastructure to Israel and Afghanistan’s Helmand Province – which is currently controlled by British troops – has made them the best protection drug-money can buy – with an impressive 57% of the total annual opium production countrywide. But it was not the only reason why Washington needed to replace religious leadership of Mullah Omar with a pro-US secularist ruler in Kabul. The openly touted Caspian Sea oil exploitation was also to benefit Israel to a great extent. Alexander Machkevitch, born and raised in Kyrgyzstan. He is a very close friend of country’s dictator Nursultan Nazarbyev and member of many Jewish lobby groups working for Israel’s interests in Central Asia and Africa. He owns the lion-share of oil industry in the country. Machkevitch is reported to be worth US$5 billion – making him the richest Israeli-citizen outside Israel – ignoring the fact that Bernard Madoff stashed most of his US$50 billion loot in Israeli banks.
http://rehmat1.com/2010/01/08/afghanistan-wests-drugstore/
Clearly, heroin is a cash crop compared to grapes. What were they thinking, wineries in Afghanistan? Engineering failure is their stock in trade. They feign incompetence as a cover for self-fulfilling prophecies. Can we assume the incompetence of their war efforts, sacrificing thousands of lives for naught was deliberate? 12 years hence, even as they withdraw, they will still be there taking up collections from the taxpayer, just as the hyper-wealthy Vatican still expect a small, poor parish to support themselves and send money to Rome as tribute?
@nobody, thank you for fleshing out my reference to the Opium Wars; those who are interested in my references to the Native Americans, are highly recommended to view “500 Nations”, a programme documentary series based on original sources & contemporary accounts, narrated by Kevin Costner;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_Nations
Britain foments,finances and fights wars in Libya,Syria,Egypt,Afghanistan,Iraq,etc etc etc and then they turn round today and say,we refuse to pick up the refugees in the Med from our foreign policy that makes their lives so unbearable they chose to risk them on leaky boats.
If we dont want the fall-out then we shouldn’t light the fuckin fuse in the first place.
Are we as a nation getting into full time extermination ?
“Her arsehole is quite tight”
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Ben’s influence grows……:)
“Are you a drug dealer Kempe?”
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Are you a Nordic catamite, Mats?
Ah yes, the worldwide mercenary canard rises to the challenge; how do we keep Academi healthy?
http://www.wired.com/2012/12/diplo-air-force/
“Unsure how your private security firm makes money as the U.S. war in Afghanistan winds down? One option: Go into the drug trade — more specifically, the lucrative business of fighting narcotics. The State Department needs a business partner to keep its fleet of drug-hunting helicopters and planes flying worldwide. You could make up to $10 billion-with-a-B.”
“Judeo-Christian Americans”
“the Jewish-controlled world drug empire”
“The openly touted Caspian Sea oil exploitation was also to benefit Israel to a great extent”
“many Jewish lobby groups working for Israel’s interests in Central Asia and Africa”
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Hasn’t Craig already told you to lay off the anti-Semitism, Rehmat?
Daniel Hopsicker; the go-to-guy on Western CIA drug transport.(Caribbean, central and south America)
http://www.madcowprod.com/2014/09/12/mystery-aircraft-busted-in-australia-was-cia-plane/#more-9462
“The discovery of an American-registered plane delivering drugs at an Australian airport heralded, according to Australian law enforcement, a “sophisticated drug network” that had begun using the tiny Illawarra Regional Airport, 60 miles south of Sydney, to import guns and drugs.
The purchase in the U.S. of the Merlin III, and the plane’s subsequent two-month long saga on its journey “home” to Australia, an Australian law enforcement official told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, were actions undertaken at the behest of a “major international crime syndicate.”
Police were said to be “close-mouthed;”and “tight-lipped.” After revealing they had confiscated 35 kilos, they refused to identify the drug involved, which is heroin.
But Police prosecutor Sergeant Sean Thackray gave things away when he let slip, ‘‘We’re talking about the organization of a plane to import a large amount of a substance …. to the value of $9 million.’’
(Note: Price quotes per kilo for heroin in consuming countries vary widely, from a low of $100,000 to a high, in Australia, of all places, of $375,000. If we take a figure in the middle, $250,000, 35 kilos is worth $8.7 million, very close to Sgt. Thackray’s quote of $9 million.)
Not to be forgotten is Lockerbie, where a suitcase with $500k in heroin was found on the ground. The CIA station Chief from Lebanon along with aides was traveling to DC with evidence the CIA was trafficking. We know the rest of the story.
Very odd indeed that they are razing the hemp plantations to the ground. There is a Nazi-esque level of bizarre pettiness involved there. Hemp, we all know, has many uses. They could have just left it, people doubtless were working these fields, and now they aren’t.
“Morrow replied: “U.S. government involvement in the drug trade ebbs and flows depending on a particular administration’s level of corruption. If a Bush or Clinton is in office, you better believe it’s rip-roaring.””
Ha, that’s funny. I’ve always been a bit sceptical about the Arkansas airport stuff. However, I’ve no doubt at all his administration was a pit of epic corruption from beginning to end. They like money do they Clintons, famous for it. Bush Senior seems to be a rather popular figure in conspiracy land, which I’ve always found a bit odd. You name it, he appears. MK Ultra, JFK’s assassination, certain other allegations, which I shall not mention. Again, hugely sceptical about all that kind of stuff, but the more mundane arms-running, coke dealing, and black ops stuff I can well believe. Still gets top-level security reports, apparently, like all presidents. Think that should be put a stop to, for a start.
Those opium fields could be valid and useful, and provide the engine of growth in Afghanistan. I”m sure Big Pharma could use them, for legal purposes. Instead, lunatics are in charge. So it goes.
Craig
éOpium production in Afghanistan has increased by 4,000% since the start of the US/UK/Others occupation.”
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Is that based on 2013 production as compared to production in the last year of the “Taliban period”
or
2013 production as compared to the average yearly production during the whole of the “Taliban period”
or
average yearly production since 1990/91 as compared to the average yearly production during the whole of the “Raliban period”?
I very much hope it’s not the first possibility, selected for effect.
Why are you anti-semite Habbabkuk la Vita?
What in hell did they ever do to you?
“since 1990/91” should read “since 2000/2001, Craig.
“Why are you anti-semite Habbabkuk”
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More of an anti-catamite, Mats. No offence meant, of course.
Worthwhile shared blog post CM. What absolutely utterly disheartening times. No wonder there is so much anguish about Harry Roberts getting paroled!!!
None taken Habbabkuk.Many victims become anti afterwards.
You have many demons to deal with.Which do you find hardest to deal with?
Latest from Charles Crawford’s blog. Good, measured but firm piece. Enjoy!
“Over in Canada we now see more extremist Islamist killing. Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
“… attacks on our security personnel and our institutions of governance are by their very nature attacks on our country, on our values, on our society, on us Canadians as a free and democratic people who embrace human dignity for all. But let there be no misunderstanding. We will not be intimidated. Canada will never be intimidated.”
Hmm. What does ‘intimidated’ mean?
One way of dealing with terrorism is to strike a bold pose. Another way is to try not to be ‘provocative’. Canada for now seems to be going for the latter: its service personnel have been told not to wear their uniforms in public:
And amid those increased tensions and the apparent increase in threat against those proudly serving in military uniforms, some soldiers are being warned to limit wearing those outfits to official duties.
Following the the shooting death of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo on Wednesday and the death of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., on Monday, some military officials are warning soldiers to stay out of uniform whenever they are off duty.
CBC Montreal reports that an email was sent to local military personnel telling them to only wear their military uniforms when on base or while travelling to their homes. In all other cases, they should stay out of their gear. Another email to student soldiers warned them not to wear their uniforms at any time.
This approach of course has some merits: quick, be careful, stay calm, reduce risks in current circumstances! But it also effectively cedes ground metaphorically and literally to Islamist lunatics: their zeal to murder people is for the time being the über-value defining what free Canadians can do in public.
Note that this policy was also deployed temporarily in the UK in 2013 after the atrocious murder of Fusilier Drummer Lee Rigby.
Imagine what would happen if after such murders all service personnel were ordered to wear their uniforms in public as a mark of pride and respect for their fallen comrades. Yes, it would be ‘risky’. Some might even die in further Islamist murder outrages. As might civilians.
But if soldiers are not ready to take that risk, they should not be soldiers. And civilians unwilling to champion their armed forces and to take on any risks from doing so do not deserve those soldiers’ protection.
The first and last place to stand tall for one’s national values of freedom and civilisation is right out there in public, on one’s own streets.”
Watch “Glen Greenwald – State Surveillance & The Assault…” on YouTube Glen Greenwald – State Surveillance & The Assault…: http://youtu.be/T2cQiVrmdUI
“I’ve always been a bit sceptical about the Arkansas airport stuff. However, I’ve no doubt at all his administration was a pit of epic corruption from beginning to end. They like money do they Clintons, famous for it. Bush Senior seems to be a rather popular figure in conspiracy land, which I’ve always found a bit odd. You name it, he appears. MK Ultra, JFK’s assassination”
Yes it does defy logic and reason, but isn’t that the defense? When they perform so outlandishly, and seemingly risk so much due to exposure, you have to wonder. Then again, it sounds crazy to suggest a former President and CIA Director could be culpable and that’s a winning position for any unschooled in past behaviors. Conspiracy theorists often viewed as ‘nuts’.
“But if soldiers are not ready to take that risk, they should not be soldiers. And civilians unwilling to champion their armed forces and to take on any risks from doing so do not deserve those soldiers’ protection.”
There go the chickenhawks again. They are filled with Patriotism as long as someone else’s boots are full of blood.
“Many victims become anti afterwards.”
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You may be on to something there, Mats. Is that what makes the Eminence on this blog tick, d’you think?
drugs and prostitution ~ added to UK GDP
It started in June… and it’s not just the UK
From https://secure.marketwatch.com/story/how-sex-drugs-may-not-pay-in-tallying-up-gdp-2014-06-09
The financial article mentions that it is originally the U.N.’s plan to achieve a more accurate comparative GDP. Spain will soon also include drugs & prostitution, whilst Nordic countries will include R&D costs, pensions & insurance. Sweden will actuarize Russian sub-hunting, maybe not, but did you read that Norway actually found one? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11191777/Mystery-submarine-sighting-gives-clue-to-Russias-Arctic-ambitions.html