Ian reviews briefly a new book “Opium Season: A Year on the Afghan Frontier” by Joel Hafvenstein, saying that the author knows how to write, and unlike many writers about Afghanistan, has a sense of measure and humility about his own limitations and failures.
2 comments
I wonder how much money one would have to offer each and all of the poppy growers to get them to agree to not grow poppies. Could one get the poppy growers to agree to not grow poppies for some amount of money? If there is such an amount of money, how does that amount compare to the amount doled out to US and Afghan officials to work on reconstructing the country and to fight the poppy growing (who are apparently not accomplishing any of that)?