Laura Bush, Poppy Fields, and U.S. Marines

This past weekend, First Lady Laura Bush made a courageous and well-intended visit to war-torn Afghanistan. She ventured deep into central Afghanistan to see for herself what progress has been made particularly in women’s development and educational and training projects.

Emphasizing such interests, the First Lady flew to Bamiyan, one of the country’s poorest provinces, which has Afghanistan’s only female governor. While in Bamiyan, she visited a school under construction, which will also be an orphanage.

She also visited a provincial reconstruction team compound in Bamiyan where New Zealand soldiers performed the traditional warrior dance for the First Lady. The camp is very close to a cliff side where two giant Buddha statues once stood. The niches in that cliff side are now empty as the statues were blown up by the Taliban in 2001. Perhaps the First Lady saw these, too, from a distance.

In Kabul, Mrs. Bush met with Afghan teachers and students and announced a U.S. $80 million pledge for education programs, including funds for scholarships, for developing the campus of the American University of Afghanistan, and for a national literacy program.

While Laura Bush was shown schools, orphanages, hospitals, cultural sites and other projects that are important to all, but in particular significant to women–wives, mothers, grandmothers–apparently she did not visit Afghanistan’s notorious heroin-producing poppy fields.

Why do I mention wives, mothers and grandmothers in conjunction with Laura Bush’s visit and the poppy fields in Afghanistan?

The reason is simple, and it also takes us to a subject that, strangely enough, has not received much media attention. But it did catch my wife’s (a grandmother) eye and attention.

You see, we religiously read the on-line version of the Stars and Stripes, a great little newspaper published daily for the U.S. military, Department of Defense civilians, contractors, and their families–especially those serving overseas. On May 8, 2008, the Stars and Stripes carried an article, with an accompanying photo, titled “To win favor with Afghans, Marines let poppies grow.” To our amazement, according to the AP story, our own U.S. Marines are in essence closing their eyes to opium poppy-growing in Afghanistan. The article even carries a photograph showing armed U.S. Marines “peacefully” walking through the poppy fields.

According to the article:

“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.”

The article continues to discuss the untenable position our Marines find themselves in.

It is hard for me to believe that our U.S. Marines would be used to in effect protect the poppy fields. As a matter of fact, I now have hopes that the AP story was wrong or inaccurate. When I “googled” on the original title of the AP story, “Marines ignore Afghan opium so as not to upset locals,” I got the following message from AP/Google: “We are sorry. The article you have requested is no longer available.” (Other web sites still carry the article.)

Even if the article was accurate, I can not and will not blame our troops. In a letter to the Stars and Stripes, and reacting to the article, my wife wrote:

“Regarding the May 8 article ‘To win favor with Afghans, Marines let poppies grow’: As a mother and grandmother I was appalled to read — and to see the photograph of — how our own U.S. Marines are turning a blind eye to the growing of opium-producing poppies in Afghanistan. The heroin that eventually evolves from these very same fields being ‘protected’ by our troops will eventually make its way to our streets and homes and addict and kill our children and grandchildren.”

“Let me be perfectly clear: I don’t criticize our brave Marines. They are just following the orders originating at the highest levels of our military and our government, a government that speaks out of both sides of its mouth on this issue. Perhaps your headline should say, ‘To win favor with Afghans, the U.S. government turns a blind eye to heroine production and trade.’”

I totally agree with her.

And now back to the First Lady’s visit to Afghanistan. As far as I know, she did not visit or see Afghanistan’s poppy fields. I also know that, as a mother, she would do everything in her power to help eradicate Afghanistan’s heroine producing poppy fields. I also know that if she had read the AP story, she would have talked to the Commander-in-Chief and would have asked him–told him–to immediately put a stop to the practice alleged to in the AP story.

That is why I initially mentioned “wives, mothers and grandmothers” in conjunction with Laura Bush’s visit and the poppy fields in Afghanistan. Perhaps the First Lady should have been shown the poppy fields of Afghanistan. As a woman, a mother, and the wife of the most powerful man in the world, she certainly would do something about it.