OK, going a little Dish intensive today but it's only because their stuff is so good (and Sullivan's on vacation, no less); one of his readers writes:
Opiate painkilling drugs are in critically short supply across the developing world. So why doesn't the USA just buy the Afghan poppy harvest, process it into painkilling meds, and distribute them to poor countries?
Not only is this one of the best anti-war on drugs proposals I've ever heard, it's actually one of the best ideas concerning the conflict in Afghanistan I've ever heard (and that includes anything Barack Obama or anyone else has ever said about that country).1. This would cut off the Taliban's chief source of funding.
2. It would put the average Afghan farmer on the side of the US-supported government instead of the Taliban.
3. It would play to our strength -- money. The Taliban has more local knowledge, more time, more patience, more willingess to shed innocent blood. But we have more money. They might be able to outfight us, out-corrupt us, or out-terrorize us, but they can't outbid us.
4. It would put the US on record as alleviating suffering all over the world.
5. By fighting the Taliban with dollars instead of (as many) soldiers, we'd suffer a lot fewer killed and maimed Americans.
6. It might even be cheaper. Soldiers, tanks, planes, humvees, night vision goggles, bullets, Predator drones, etc. are really, really, expensive.
6 comments:
I have to say that I agree.
Daily Dish is the most disgusting blog on the web. The Palin derangement is sickening. Hopefully Sull's taking a long, long vacation.
Frankly, your reading it so frequently is truly disturbing, with all due respect.
Don, out of all the comments I read after coming home tonight, yours was my favorite by far. Sullivan is one of the most reasoned, thoughtful, curious bloggers in the sphere today and the hundreds of thousands of hits he gets from higher-educated individuals a day do nothing to diminish my point here.
Sarah Palin is a winking, vapid, incurious cover girl who couldn't find Afghanistan or Iraq on a map, nor could she debate her position on foreign policy [which did not even exist before three months ago (did I mention that she's incurious?)] out of a paper bag.
Frankly, your endorsement of her over the wishes of the more intellectual (and yes, I know how that word is anathema to your girl and her mostly chromosomally-challenged followers) members of your party is truly more disturbing than your wont of that hideous t-shirt, with all due respect, of course.
I've never read Daily Dish, but thanks to Donald I'm checking it out now! That's like a ringing endorsement for me.
About the article here, it almost makes too much sense to work!
JBW, Sully is a post-modernist, nihilist, Stalinist, poopyhead. He might be a fascist, Trotskyite Mason and a member of the Illuminati, as well.
Can I say poopyhead on your blog?
I'll allow your vulgar language just this once DLB but don't tell Don(na).
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