I find it staggering that we're still talking about opium poppy eradication in Afghanistan. It is seriously being proposed that the way to win the war in Afghanistan is to ... spray herbicide on the crops of Afghan farmers. I'd say that this is the kind of project that historians, with the perspective of a century, could say "Hey, that was really counter-productive and stupid." The problem is that reasonable people, with the perspective of eight seconds, can now say "Hey, this is really counter-productive and stupid." I also wish that the "some elements in the Karzai government support policy X" trope would disappear forever. The Karzai government is a client of the United States, and whether those within it do well or poorly depends, more than anything else, on how well they accommodate United States wishes. Indeed, it's an impressive testament to the stupidity of the spraying program that so many within the Karzai government (including Karzai himself) are willing to call this nonsense out. -- Robert Farley
