Canada Stands Alone

Well, not quite. Only in the matter of paying violent Islamofascists to become nicely obliging citizens of the world. To surrender to civility. The U.S. is all for it, the British and the French are too, and the United Nations - well, they're always anxious to avoid trouble and violence and inconvenience when it's at all feasible.

And it seems, it would appear, to these hard-headed, yet visionary intelligences in their collective wisdom that it is feasible to pay off dedicated jihadists, to have them lay down their arms and disown their belief that delivering death through roadside packages represents the Islamic ideal. Well, not interested, definitely not interested, the Taliban leadership says.

Up the ante a bit?

Who needs Western funding, they've got all they want, and more, come to think of it, without having to beg for alms. They, after all, control most of the opium trade of the world. Opium growing farmers in Helmand province are handsomely paid by the Taliban to grow the crop, and the Taliban, in turn, make sterling profit in the purveyance of that world-treasured crop.

Now, let's see, were not NATO and the United Nations talking about and mounting a campaign to pay Afghan farmers to grow wheat and other edible crops, rather than poppies? And weren't they crowing about how successful this terrific initiative was, in persuading the farmers they could make a decent living that way instead of backing the opium trade? Obviously, they were not persuaded.

And weren't U.S. troops frantically obliterating all those lovely blooms? So, goodness, whatever happened?

The very industry that supports the Taliban in grand style, enabling them to buy their own Pashtun foot soldiers to handily induct into the battle for Afghanistan, is the very industry that enables the Taliban to knock off Western troops stationed in that country. Now, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports the curbing trend that saw a downward growth of poppies has been reversed.

And the world can still depend on having its 90% of the illegal opium market from that excellent-quality Afghan poppy-crop.

"The message is clear: in order to further reduce the biggest source of the world's deadliest drug, there must be better security, development and governance in Afghanistan", according to the head of UNODC. "The Afghan authorities must lead and own their drug control strategy: the rest of the world has a vested interest in its success." Amazing conclusion.

Well, that's just the thing, isn't it? That's what deters the Government of Canada in signing off on the fantastic new idea about buying allegiance to moderation, of ingratiatingly buying off production of opiate-producing crops. Just as you can't squeeze liquid from minerals, you cannot persuade fanatics to be reasonable human beings, and you cannot persuade farmers to desist from a crop that brings home the - no, not bacon.

Oops, there's another reality: guess they haven't quite understood that government authorities themselves in that country rely on the poppy crop to top up their earnings, huh? Likewise, the national police force and the armed services. Flummoxed. Again.