Infra_Man99
Banned Idiot
Opium cultivation was always a central part of the Afghan economy due to the paucity of other viable crops, war or no war.
Can I have your sources of the rate of Afghani opium and drug productions before and after the modern war? Please show ancient era, feudal era, and modern era.
My sources tell me Afghanistan, from ancient times to modern eras, was NOT a major source of drugs or was not heavily dependent on drug production, but I've been wrong before. Today's drug dependence is a rarity in Afghani history.
Here are only two modern sources out of many that claimed the Muslim extremists/Taliban was effectively wiping out Opium production in the years leading up to the US-Allied military invasion:
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The Afghani people have been capable of raising various crops (read: noncontroversial plants) and livestock to take care of themselves. They have a difficult challenge, but they have been doing so since ancient times, if not earlier.
My historical understanding of Afghanistan is that the nation only used drugs to gather large funds during modern times. Somehow, the modern Afghani people learned outsiders around the world were extremely willing to pay loads of money for drugs, and the Afghani somehow figured out how to mass produce and sell the drugs to outsiders. This is a modern phenomena, NOT a historical event. The Taliban initially sold drugs to foreigners to fund themselves and defeat the other warlords, but the Taliban and other Warlords began to question the usage and sale of drugs. The result was the effective minimization of drug production in Afghanistan. Drugs are against their religion.
Islam is anti-drugs. Historically, Islam has done a better job of minimizing (but not wiping out) the consumption of alcohol and other drugs than Judaism and Christianity. I don't meet many Muslims, but I have met some throughout my life, and NONE of them drink alcohol or use recreational drugs. They avoid them like poison. They strongly believe recreational drugs leads to spiritual and moral decline (and I agree).
The only exception is smoking tobacco. Muslims don't seem to have a problem with tobacco, but even then, they don't abuse the stuff. I know there have been Muslim druggies and Muslims who use drugs, but I am talking about the whole population across history. As a group, they have been very anti-drugs.
With the Muslim extremists busy fighting for control after the US-Allied invasion, Afghani drug producers have been able to restart their drug trade. Unfortunately, US-Allied assistance to Afghanis have helped a broad range of Afghanis, and that includes Afghani drug producers. US-Allied forces even protect some Afghani drug producers, because they claim they don't want unemployment problems in Afghanistan. Strangely enough, the US is a large consumer of opium and other drugs.
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