Behind the United States' bogus war on Taliban drug labs

By Mike Power / Vice

The War on Drugs has fewer battle lines more clearly defined than those in Afghanistan, which is still the world’s greatest heroin producer and exporter after almost two decades of U.S. attempts to eradicate the trade.

And in May this year, after a reported local boom in crystal methamphetamine production, U.S-led forces did what they always do: they dropped some bombs. U.S. and Afghan forces dropped laser-guided missiles on what they said were 68 Taliban-run meth labs in the southwest of Afghanistan.

Abdul Rahman Rahmani, deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense, said the strikes would deny the insurgency of “$1 million a day” in lost revenue. Local media said 150 “Taliban terrorists” were killed in the raids.

U.S. forces have occupied Afghanistan for nearly two decades, but have nonetheless failed to prevent an unprecedented growth in opium cultivation, heroin production and now methamphetamine supply.

Even so, U.S. military officials claim they are winning big. They say their aerial assaults on Afghan drug labs have denied the Taliban tens of millions of dollars in revenue.