Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (leap.cc)

They see what happened when we legalized alcohol in 1932 as a good example of how drug legalization would work. we can't stop drugs. They're sick of chasing drug users and sending innocent people to prison for decades just because they like to get high. This foolish war on drugs has lasted 37 years and cost us over a TRILLION dollars and we are not an inch closer to stopping drugs. How many millions of Americans are we going to lock up in prison for decades? My brother, Spencer Montgomery III would still be alive if heroin had been legal. He overdosed because he didn't know the actual strength of the heroin he injected. He should have been able to buy a known amount of heroin in a pharmacy. Legalize ALL drugs now. Mark Montgomery

That is true, but then the mostly Arab “troops” of Al Quaeda are erstwhile occupiers as well, are they not? Civilian Afghans, the vast majority of that nation, as opposed to “militants and nationalists,” despise them, on a nationalist as well as racial level.. And of course, it was the Arab's actions (with help from the unloved extremist Taliban who had taken over) which led to Western troops occupying that country, a reality I doubt is lost on many Afghans given cultural, nationalist and racial enmities. And Afghanistan, at least among its “elites,” does have a long and relatively recent history of being open to universal education, acceptance of the sciences, etc.

But we're not going to bring “American style” democracy to Afghanistan. The Obama Administration's plan acknowledges that, if largely between the lines. It is focused on defeating – or more likely rendering impotent – the threat from Al Queda to the West from that region. That is a far more reasonable goal than the armies you mention that went to Afghanistan to die were charged with. Our mission is an apples to oranges comparison with theirs.

Two issues you rightly mention, opium poppy production within Afghanistan, and the safe haven offered Al Queda in Pakistan's tribal regions, are the toughest nuts to crack in progressing toward our goals, it seems to me. Another, the corruption issue, will live on centuries after we've left as it always has. As far as poppy production goes, it's not as if Afghan farmers see anywhere near the reward of the high street price the final product fetches in the US or Europe. They aren't getting rich growing it. It's simply the crop easiest to grow and sell to a waiting customer. Replacement crops have been mentioned – pomegranates for instance – but like many others it would take many years of farming before any profit on the effort would be realized. (While Afghan marijuana is prized around the globe, that doesn't seem too viable either, given Obama's recent utterances on its legalization here!)

It seems to me that Pakistan is the real linchpin in all of this. That is the safe haven Al Queda now seems to operate from. A new, highly unstable government is in charge, in a nation with a history of coups, and a mortal existential enemy in India it is distracted by. Most worrisome, it has advanced refined technology, from its well known nuclear capacity, to likely biological and chemical capabilities, with a scientific community that has in the past been, well, friendly to extremists, and a powerful intelligence service and army whose loyalty to the ruling government is in in serious doubt.

Yes, we have options in dealing with all of the impossible issues which must be addressed. And the Administration's plan seems an attempt to begin dealing with them in a more realistic way. But the last 7 years of incompetent decisions have so narrowed our choices that all we are left with is the choice between “say a prayer,” and “doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.”

Given that choice, I'll be praying for success.