Opium rules
From Mr P. G. Urben Sir: Peter °borne and Lucy Morgan Edwards CA victory for drug-pushers', 31 May) omitted one significant factor in the current Afghan opium trade.
In. almost, a pre-run of Iraq, Tony Blair made stopping the opium industry an important grounds for war against the Taleban. Now, whatever intelligence may (or may not) have told the PM, the intelligent Afghan watcher knew, and the UN had certified, that the Taleban had banned poppy-growing in the area they controlled, and enforced that ban. Post 1999, and probably before, the Northern Alliance
dominated the Afghan opium industry.
Outside the fantasy world of Westminster, if you support the supporters of a given policy against the opponents of it, you must expect the policy to go forward. Indeed, almost the first thing that the Northern Alliance did on taking Kabul was to rescind the ban on poppy-growing.
There is not much opium-growing within the city of Kabul, where, alone and then only in daylight hours, Hamid Karzai's writ may run. His reinstatement of the ban cannot be expected to cut much ice in the countryside.
In Afghanistan, Blair supported the opium industry; over Iraq, he supports the WMD-owning USA. Whether intelligence lacks experts or the experts lack intelligence, we may debate. What is quite certain is that Blair's policies owe little to either intelligence or expertise.
P.G. Urben Pittenweem, Fife
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