Originally Posted by
Less Hair
To not upset our -until very recently- local partners in the fight against the Taliban.
Having trained and equipped incompetent local forces seems to be massively backfiring now.
Almost. Bur not so much to do with indigenous forces as the local folk. In a predominantly rural economy, poppies are lucrative crop for farmers that they have learned to grow over generations. Destroy the crop, they starve and are unlikely to view you favourably when you suggest you they shop the Taliban to you or adopt your strange western ideas of democracy. Since just about all males in that part of the world own a gun, they might just start supporting the bad guys. In fact, given you just destroyed their livelihood, they might even join them.