Fixing Afghanistan; Heroin trade a major obstacle.(OPED)

Washington Times, The, April, 2008

Byline: Fred Gedrich, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Afghanistan's thriving heroin drug trade is a significant barrier to the country fully moving into modernity after centuries of chronic instability, poverty, and barbaric rule. The U.S.-led counter-narcotics program, which emphasizes poppy crop destruction, hasn't been able to thwart it. Absent a suitable anti-drug alternative the nation risks becoming a failed state again, crippling the war against radical Islamic extremism.

According to the State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for 2007 Afghanistan leads the world in heroin production and trafficking, cultivating about 93 percent of the world's opium poppy. The estimated export value of the harvest was $4...