Middle East Failure Clearly Shown In Opium Production

Reports illustrate failures of U.S. occupation in Middle East

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Sam Rolley

Dual reports from Iraq and Afghanistan shed new light on just how much of a resounding failure the U.S.’s long-running occupation of the Middle East has been as the nation enters another year of efforts to combat new terror threats in the region.

Following rapid gains by the Islamic State terror group in Iraq last year, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steven Warren said this week that American troops at Al Asad air base in the country are coming under “regular” artillery fire from ISIS militants.

To date, none of the 320 U.S. troops stationed at the base have been injured by the attacks, which have been called “completely ineffective” by the Pentagon.

“It’s fair to say Al Asad air base is coming under regular … harassment fires,” Warren said.

“What’s most important is that the fire has been completely ineffective,” he continued. “Purely nuisance attacks … American forces there right now have sustained absolutely no injuries, wounds or even equipment damage.”

But the aggression toward U.S. forces is raising new questions about the “advise and assist” efforts U.S. personnel in Iraq have been tasked with in recent months.

Warren described the current U.S. mission in Iraq as one focused on “support planning, information and intelligence fusion, close air support coordination operations, and overall development of security strategies.”

Meanwhile, 13 years of U.S. occupation has done nothing to quell opium production in Afghanistan. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that 2014 was a banner year for Afghan farmers growing opium, a drug which has been noted as a key revenue stream for radical Islamic groups in the region.

“The total area under opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan was estimated to be 224,000 hectares in 2014, a 7 percent increase from the previous year,” says UNODC’s “Afghanistan Opium Survey 2014.”

The report also notes that Afghanistan, which produces about 80 percent of the world’s opium supply, is also finding new markets.

CNS News reports that the increase in opium production should be particularly maddening to U.S. forces, noting: “Most of the U.S. casualties in Afghan War have occurred in the Hilmand and Kandahar provinces, which are also the two leading opium-growing provinces.”