Costa: 'The [drug eradication] money would be better spent on development assistance, like hospitals and schools'. Massoud Hossaini / AFP-Getty ImagesFrom Newsweek:
After spending years and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to eradicate the fields of poppies that produce opium in Afghanistan, the United States suddenly announced in June that, in the words of special Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke, "eradication is a waste of money." Instead, NATO and Afghan forces are trying to focus on the nexus between the opium trade and Taliban financing. Nobody has watched these developments more closely than Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. A frequent visitor to Afghanistan himself, he also has a staff of some 360 locals "crisscrossing the country," tracking the growth and sale of narcotics. In a series of interviews with NEWSWEEK's Christopher Dickey, Costa talked about the surprising drug story behind the war story in Afghanistan. Excerpts:
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My Comment: Losing the Afghan Drug War is an understatement .... it is a complete failure.