Originally Posted by
4Greens
I like the idea. Would be interested in the views on the West buying all the opium to take the baddies out of the trade.
Buying the opium might be considered a panacea solution but opium is only part of the equation.
Opium - Taliban
Farmer grows opium poppy. Opium smuggled out to the market. Cash paid to traders and farmers - taliban take their cut.
Opium - open trade
Farmer grows opium poppy. Opium exported to legal market. Cash paid to traders and farmers - taliban take their cut.
Spot the difference.
Instead let us switch to wheat production.
Wheat trade
Farmer grows wheat. Wheat exported for cash. Cash paid to traders and farmers - taliban take their cut.
Spot the difference.
Khan's solution, and Templar before him, was to separate the baddies from the goodies to that:
Farmer grows wheat. Wheat exported for cash. Cash paid to traders and farmers -
taliban excluded.
Protection of closed centres of population is what Khan is proposing but a weakness remains. The farmers' fields need protection too to prevent the taliban destroying the crops and disrupting the trade.