In a week of increased violence in Afghanistan, intelligence sources are contributing the recent string of Taliban offensives as an attempt to protect the season's poppy plants. With attacks focused on government buildings and officials in major Poppy regions, we have seen casualties to many civilians, as well as U.S. soldiers. These conflicts have arisen despite hopes in January from U.S. and Afghanistan to reduce U.S. & NATO troops in the nation.It wasn't too long ago in January when the Taliban decided to sit down at peace talks for the first time in the course of the War in Afghanistan. Then in February there was the Koran burning incident, and in March a U.S. Soldier reportedly murdered 18 Afghani civilians, further enraging the entire country.
In the past few years the government of Afghanistan, with pressure from the International Community, have begun to 'eradicate' one of the nation's largest sources of revenue, the poppy plant, with pressures coming from the International Community. The U.N. has pressured Afghanistan to destroy its main cash crop because of an increasing narcotics problem in the region, and because the plant is considered a main source of funding for the Taliban.
The Taliban have been carrying out attacks in Southern and Western Afghanistan with the intention of maintaining control of their corrupt lucrative industry. The Poppy plant is a staple of Afghanistan's agriculture sector, and the industry in Afghanistan is estimated to be worth around 4 billion dollars annually, with the U.N. estimating Taliban roughly holding 10% of that revenue; Agriculture is of great importance Afghanistan's economy, with nearly 80% of the country employed in the agriculture industry, it also makes up a large portion of their GDP of 28 billion.
The eradication has been unpopular with local farmers, as well as with citizens, and offers a unique political risk to the current Karzai regime in Afghanistan, with the recent threat of the Taliban regaining control due to increasing unpopularity of Western influence. Supporters of the industry claim that the plant is essential in insuring income in poverty stricken areas, and who claim there are currently no alternatives to grow. One solution would be for the Afghani government to subsidize legal industries, to finance and develop poverty stricken rural regions. There is a ton of uncertainty in the economic, and political direction of Afghanistan in the coming years.
With the United States expected to start removing troops Mid-2013, and with the spring resurgence of the Taliban, Afghanistan is once again a growing concern for the International Community.
