Geopolitics, Profit, and Poppies: How the CIA Turned Afghanistan into a Failed Narco-State

The war in Afghanistan has looked a lot like the war on drugs in Latin America and previous colonial campaigns in Asia, with a rapid militarization of the area and the empowerment of pliant local elites.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
CIA Afghanistan Drug trade Feature photo

AFGHANISTAN -- The COVID-19 pandemic has been a death knell to so many industries in Afghanistan. Charities and aid agencies have even warned that the economic dislocation could spark widespread famine. But one sector is still booming: the illicit opium trade. Last year saw Afghan opium poppy cultivation grow by over a third while counter-narcotics

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New Study Highlights Devastating Global Effects of War on Drugs

An International group has called for a major rethink of global policy on narcotics and an end to the failed efforts that governments refuse to relinquish

Jon Queally
By Jon Queally
MARJAH, Helmand province, Afghanistan - Corporal Mark Hickok, a 23-year-old combat engineer from North Olmstead, Ohio, patrols through a poppy field during a clearing mission April 9. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. John M. McCall)

Another major study designed to assess how national governments wage their so-called "war on drugs" shows that the last ten years of such policies have not only failed to put a dent in the illegal drug trade, the tactics have had serious negative impacts for global health, human rights, public safety and economic progress. As a result, the

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North Korea Is A Major Opium Producer, Making It A Prime Target For The CIA

North Korea is starting to produce more opium in a bid to financially prop up its regime following Chinese sanctions on its coal exports. Will its increased opium production make it a target for the U.S. military? History suggests this may be the case.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb

MINNEAPOLIS-- (Analysis) When the U.S. overthrew the Taliban in the wake of 9/11 as part of its newly launched “war on terror,” it set the stage for the explosive growth of Afghanistan’s dying opium industry. A few short months before the invasion took place, the Taliban made headlines for having “dramatically ended the country’s massive opium

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A Fruitless, Pointless War: America’s Legacy in Afghanistan

End the war. Bring all the troops home. Now.

Jeffrey Cavanaugh
By Jeffrey Cavanaugh
U.S. Army Soldiers in the Konar province of Afghanistan. (Photo/U.S. Army by Sgt. Johnny R. Aragon via Flickr)

Rudyard Kipling, the British poet laureate of Western imperialism, wrote in his great poem “White Man’s Burden” that the job of ruling foreign peoples – whom he characteristically referred to as childish, slothful heathens – was often one that was both costly and thankless. Blood, treasure and the best of entire generations, said Kipling, would be

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