Pubdate: Wed, 27 Sep 2006
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Bernie Smith

DRUG PRODUCTION OF OLYMPIC PROPORTIONS

If we are to believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada and 
Afghanistan are really joined at the hip. That was even more apparent 
when Afghan President Hamid Karzai addressed a joint sitting of our 
Parliament in Ottawa.

The diminutive leader is generally acknowledged to be little more 
than the mayor of Kabul -- with the rest of his country being 
controlled by either poppy-growing warlords or gun-toting Taliban.

Despite all the words of bravado this past week, let us not forget 
the warning of philosopher and writer George Santayana: "Those who 
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Let us not 
forget that ethnic Pashtun tribesmen have successfully repelled every 
occupying army for centuries, dating back to the formidable forces of 
Alexander The Great around 300 BC.

Their opium poppy market has increased some 59 per cent in the past 
year to its greatest ever yield, while right here we reluctantly 
admit that our most lucrative cash crop is B.C. Bud.

Think of the advantages to our beleagured taxpayers if all that drug 
money was used to sponsor the 2010 Olympics.

Bernie Smith,

Parksville.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman