“NATO mulls expanded counter-narcotics role in bid to stem growing Afghan violence”

Sigh:

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The United States on Thursday pushed NATO allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan’s thriving heroin trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening insurgency against the troubled international military mission.

A two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers comes amid an increase in violence that has created doubts about whether Western forces can win the war against the resurgent Taliban militants.

“If we have the opportunity to go after drug lords and drug laboratories and try and interrupt this flow of cash to the Taliban, that seems to me like a legitimate security endeavor,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the meeting. [AP Link]

The Afgan war is not a Counter-Narcotics war. The focus is on Al-Quada and their supporters (Taliban mostly).

The poppy business is on both sides.

US/NATO must focus on the goal: Defeating/Destroy/Degrading Al-Qada et al.

Taking on the Poppy farmers is a sure way to separate USA/NATO from the Afganistani people. That is not the way successful 4GW/COIN works.