Securing Afghanistan's Future Against Opium

<p>Since 2001 the United States and its NATO allies have been committed to helping the Afghani government build a stable and democratic country. However the insurgency led by the Taliban and fueled by Afghanistan's illicit opium industry is unraveling these positive developments undermining the central government and threatening to make Afghanistan once again a safe haven for terrorists and their organizations. Efforts by coalition forces have been hampered due to a shortage of funding and manpower mostly attributed to the simultaneous operations and attention given to the operations in Iraq. The lack of troops and resources has resulted in a security vacuum which the Taliban has filled. Regaining and establishing security while simultaneously interdicting opium after it has been harvested are the coalition's best means of significantly reducing the Taliban's funding source and weakening the insurgency. In achieving the objectives of security and opium reduction coalition forces must be keenly aware of both the desired and undesired effects that their military operations have on the Afghani peoples and how those effects contribute towards Afghanistan's strategic political end state of winning the support of the Afghani people and defeating the insurgency.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>