David Guttenfelder / AP

Afghanistan supplies some 93 percent of the world's opium used to make heroin, and the Taliban

militants earn up to $100 million from the drug trade, the United Nations estimates.

updated

GARMSER, Afghanistan — The Marines of Bravo

Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies.

Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy

opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan

laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave.

Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into

southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium

poppy-growing region, and now find themselves

surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce

the main ingredient of heroin.

The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with

the Marines in Garmser, derives up to $100 million a year

from the poppy harvest by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees — money that will buy weapons for

use against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops.

Yet the Marines are not destroying the plants. In fact, they are reassuring villagers the poppies won't be

touched. American commanders say the Marines would only alienate people and drive them to take up arms

if they eliminated the impoverished Afghans' only source of income.

Only source of income

Many Marines in the field are scratching their heads over the situation.

"It's kind of weird. We're coming over here to fight the Taliban. We see this. We know it's bad. But at the

same time we know it's the only way locals can make money," said 1st Lt. Adam Lynch, 27, of Barnstable,

Mass.

The Marines' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson, said in an interview Tuesday that the poppy

crop "will come and go" and that his troops can't focus on it when Taliban fighters around Garmser are

"terrorizing the people."

"I think by focusing on the Taliban, the poppies will go away," said Henderson, a 41-year-old from

Washington, D.C. He said once the militant fighters are forced out, the Afghan government can move in and

offer alternatives.

An expert on Afghanistan's drug trade, Barnett Rubin, complained that the Marines are being put in such a

situation by a "one-dimensional" military policy that fails to integrate political and economic considerations

into long-range planning.

"All we hear is, not enough troops, send more troops," said Rubin, a professor at New York University. "Then

you send in troops with no capacity for assistance, no capacity for development, no capacity for aid, no

Marines ignore opium —  Taliban's cash crop Marines fear locals would fight back if they destroyed the lucrative plants

advertisement | ad info

Share Print Font:

Hotmail More TODAY Nightly News Meet the Press Dateline Countdown Rachel Maddow msnbc tv Newsvine EveryBlock

Discussion comments

View all comments Leave your comment

capacity for governance."

Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate in the east, where the poppy problem is not as great.

But the 2,400-strong 24th Marines, have taken the field in this southern growing region during harvest

season.

Smugglers make money

In the poppy fields 100 feet from the 2nd Platoon's headquarters, three Afghan brothers scraped opium resin

over the weekend. The youngest, 23-year-old Sardar, said his family would earn little money from the

harvest.

"We receive money from the shopkeepers, then they will sell it," said Sardar, who was afraid to give his last

name. "We don't have enough money to buy flour for our families. The smugglers make the money," added

Sardar, who worked alongside his 11-year-old son just 20 yards from a Marine guard post, its guns pointed

across the field.

Afghanistan supplies some 93 percent of the world's opium used to make heroin, and the Taliban militants

earn up to $100 million from the drug trade, the United Nations estimates. The export value of this harvest

was $4 billion — more than a third of the country's combined gross domestic product.

Though they aren't eradicating poppies, the Marines presence could still have a positive effect. Henderson said

the drug supply lines have been disrupted at a crucial point in the harvest. And Marine commanders are

debating staying in Garmser longer than originally planned.

Second Lt. Mark Greenlief, 24, a Monmouth, Ill., native who commands the 2nd Platoon, said he originally

wanted to make a helicopter landing zone in Sardar's field. "But as you can see that would ruin their poppy

field, and we didn't want to ruin their livelihood."

Sardar "basically said, 'This is my livelihood, I have to do what I can to protect that,'" said Greenlief. "I told

him we're not here to eradicate."

The Taliban told Garmser residents that the Marines were moving in to eradicate, hoping to encourage the

villagers to rise up against the Americans, said 2nd Lt. Brandon Barrett, 25, of Marion, Ind., commander of

the 1st Platoon.

'Stuck in the middle'

In the next field over from Sardar's, Khan Mohammad, an Afghan born in Helmand province who lives in

Pakistan and came to work the fields, said he makes only $2 a day. He said the work is dangerous now that

Taliban militants are shooting at the U.S. positions.

"We're stuck in the middle," he said. "If we go over there those guys will fire at us. If we come here, we're in

danger, too, but we have to work," said the 54-year-old Mohammad, who supports a family of 10.

An even older laborer, his back bent by years of work, came over and told the small gathering of Afghans,

Marines and journalists that the laborers had to get back to work "or the boss will get mad at us."

Staff Sgt. Jeremy Stover, whose platoon is sleeping beside a poppy crop planted in the interior courtyard of a

mud-walled compound, said the Marines' mission is to get rid of the "bad guys," and "the locals aren't the bad

guys."

"Poppy fields in Afghanistan are the cornfields of Ohio," said Stover, 28, of Marion, Ohio. "When we got here

they were asking us if it's OK to harvest poppy and we said, 'Yeah, just don't use an AK-47.'"

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Discuss:

You

Categories

All

U.S.

World

Politics

Business

Entertainment

Health

Tech & science

Travel

Topics by number of stories published in the last 24 hours Latest headline Trend this week

sites & shows: TODAY Nightly News Meet the Press Dateline Countdown Rachel Maddow msnbc tv Newsvine EveryBlock

© 2010 msnbc.com About us Help Advertise Jobs Contact Alerts Feeds Podcasts Apps Widgets Stock data MSN Privacy Terms & conditions Site map

More from msnbc.com

Headlines

Petraeus formally takes on troubled Afghan war Gen. David Petraeus formally assumed command of the 130,000

-strong international force in Afghanistan on Sunday at a time of

rising casualties and growing skepticism.

China spends to gain Afghan foothold

Afghan women brave threats to become cops

Kyrgyzstan swears in new leader after ethnic violence

For soldiers, training mirrors Afghanistan's realities

Newsweek: Why we need a colonial service in

Afghanistan

V i d e o

‘We are in this to win, ’ 

says Petraeus

V i d e o

Petraeus works to set

new tone in Afghanistan

V i d e o

Twin bombings at

Pakistan shrine kill

dozens

V i d e o

Petraeus arrives in

Afghanistan

Multimedia

Related: Afghanistan

advertisement | ad info