Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Afghanistan's booming drugs trade under Taliban rule - BBC News" video.

I'm Australian and worked with a young engineer who had served in Afghanistan in the mid 2000s. When this subject came up he simply told me that ALL foreign forces were told NOT to burn poppy crops as it would cause too much economic hardship. This isn't a Taliban thing. This was going on long before the Taliban took control the first time. It continued under the occupation and this is just a continuation. This is what happens to a poor country when the world treats it like crap and offers NOTHING.
42
Actually Afghanistan has always had places of good agriculture. Its always had valleys where crops were productive. Afghanistan's problem is simple - its been the punching bag of superpowers since the 1980s.
27
I'm Australian and worked with a young engineer who had served in Afghanistan in the mid 2000s. When this subject came up he simply told me that ALL foreign forces were told NOT to burn poppy crops as it would cause too much economic hardship. This isn't a Taliban thing. This was going on long before the Taliban took control the first time. It continued under the occupation and this is just a continuation. This is what happens to a poor country when the world treats it like crap and offers NOTHING.
25
@relevantinfor6682 I'll take advice from people who actually read their comments. I suspect you meant "They are a hypocritical government..."
7
@2PMisTimeless What I don't like in this BBC report is the inference it started AFTER America & Co. left when its been going on for decades. When the Mujahedeen were buying weapons to fight the Russians they used money from Opium. Other than the one personal experience a workmate who served there told me I have seen other reports over the years. One of them I remember reported that half the problem was that poor Afghans were being given loans to plant opium crops from drug gangs. If the crop got burnt then they wouldn't be able to pay their debt to the drug gang. The Afghan problems were a giant mess of idiotic mistakes made worse by ignorance of the tribal allegiance's and the existence of the drug trade. Complex problems are rarely solved by pointing a finger and SIMPLISTICALLY proclaiming "That's it. That's the cause. That's the problem."
6
@charsibaba6960 Thanks - it just blows my mind how ignorant and stupid so many people are these days. The saddest joke about Afghanistan's opium trade is that it was part of the story to the 1987 James Bond film "Living Daylights" Look at the 5th & 6th paragraphs of the plot summary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Daylights#Plot I find this story perplexing because the BBC is usually a lot better with how it presents information. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️
3
@onepeace1274 Like any crop Poppies don't grow everywhere, but like coca it seems to be grown in poorer countries. As for the rest of your argument just go away with the stupidity. I'm tired of worthless morons throwing their hands in their howling "just let them all do it" Very rarely is that a worthwhile point and you case ITS NOT.
3
@onepeace1274 Well moron if your going to be IDIOTIC about a subject like this then don't whine about being called a moron. I only thing ANYONE needs to understand about your opinion is what it says about YOU. The world has 2 pandemics these days COVID and self absorbed smart asses who think they're clever. One of them has caused several million deaths the other will probably cause several billion more in the next decade.
2
@Baddy187 Don't play the superior culture crap moron IT IGNORES 1000s of years of history. We can start pointing out all the barbarity that Europe has endured for the last 2000 years. I'm of Anglo-Saxon descent, should we discuss the great tradition of hang, drawing and quartering. Do you know that for most of the last 1000 years executioners were not valued on how quick they could lop of a head. Most were valued for how long they could make an execution last. Our ancestors used to work 6 days and go to church Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon was usually spent being entertained by the executions. DON'T EVER PLAY THE SUPERIOR CULTURE CARD its stupid and ignorant and it totally ignores historical fact. As for Afghanistan. My bet is you younger and don't remember the 1970s or 80s when it was the most modern society in the Islamic world until the civil war that the Russians jumped into. It might not have been as modern or developed as the West but for certain its been a disaster since. SO STOP BEING IGNORANT, STUPID AND RACIST
1
@ypatel1070 This is a complex problem and simple solutions won't do much. The plenty of ways to put it but curing symptoms wont cure the disease.
1
@ypatel1070 I didn't mean that the starvation was complex I meant the overall situation. The starvation is the result of other more complex things and is therefore more like a symptom. We can send food, medicine and other supplies but wont fix the underlying causes. Blocking the money is the immediate underlying the cause. Getting them food and supplies NOW is a priority. Sorting out the money is a necessity or this will just keep happening.
1