Colonel Gordon Messenger, commander of the British forces in Southern Afghanistan, has said that troops under his command will not be engaged in the fight against opium cultivation. "There will be absolutely no maroon berets [of the marines] with scythes in a poppy field," he said. U.S. State department officials and the CIA claim that Afghan drug trafficking is a primary source of funding for terrorists. Doug Wankel, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who is point man for the U.S. counternarcotics initiative at the American Embassy in Kabul , said the opium industry is "financing terrorism. It's financing subversive activities. It's financing warlordism. ... And if it's a threat to the government of Afghanistan, it's a direct threat to the national security interests of the United States." Australia recently committed 200 extra troops to Afghanistan. Prime Minister John Howard has said that they also will not be involved in destroying opium poppies. "Well, dealing with that is overwhelmingly the responsibility of the local authorities," he said.
Colonel Gordon Messenger, commander of the British forces in Southern Afghanistan, has said that troops under his command will not be engaged in the fight against cultivation. "There will be absolutely no maroon berets [of the marines] with scythes in a poppy field," he said. U.S. State department officials and the claim that Afghan drug trafficking is a primary source of funding for terrorists. Doug Wankel, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who is point man for the U.S. counternarcotics initiative at the American Embassy in , said the opium industry is "financing terrorism. It's financing subversive activities. It's financing warlordism. ... And if it's a threat to the government of Afghanistan, it's a direct threat to the national security interests of the United States." Australia recently committed 200 extra troops to Afghanistan. John Howard has said that they also will not be involved in destroying opium poppies. "Well, dealing with that is overwhelmingly the responsibility of the local authorities," he said.
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