And now to Afghanistan, where today the Taliban claimed responsibility for that brazen attack we told you about last night, a failed attempt to storm the largest NATO base in southern Afghanistan. Several coalition troops were wounded. The Taliban financed as much of its operations by selling opium, which is grown from poppies, which are right now being harvested. So here's the question, why are American troops now helping Afghan farmers grow that opium? Nick Schiffrin reports from Afghanistan on a controversial new policy. In western Kandahar, poppy farmers score till harvest their crop, and the Americans do nothing to stop them. U.S. soldiers greet farmers. They commiserate with farmers having a bad harvest. And in one case they even paid a farmer $1,000 after U.S. and Afghan special forces burned his crop. If you can come down to the base on my next visit, I will make a payment. This is controversial. The opium trade is the Taliban's main source of funding. Around here this poppy isn't only a plant, it's the very basis of the economy here. Poppy grows everywhere in this area, and most of the farmers base their entire income for the entire season on this harvest. And that's why soldiers ignore and encourage the farmers. If the U.S. burned their crop, farmers would blame the U.S. for their poverty and turn toward the Taliban. I'm not going to lie to you, this farmer says, if my poppy were destroyed, I would be very angry. If we secure them having a good harvest, now they're going to get paid for all their hard work, and then we can deal with the trapping afterwards. And that is the new U.S. policy. After farmers get paid, try to capture drug traffickers. These troops have confiscated 10,000 pounds of opium before the profit reached the Taliban. One day the U.S. hopes to convince farmers to choose legal crops. Until then, the seeds of the insurgency will continue to grow in these fields. Mix your friend ABC News, Kandar.