We’re going to have to make a choice as to which war in Afghanistan is the more important one, the war against the Taliban, or the war against (some) drugs.

In the past two years, the drug war has become the Taliban’s most effective recruiter in Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s Muslim extremists have reinvigorated themselves by supporting and taxing the countless peasants who are dependent one way or another on the opium trade, their only reliable source of income. The Taliban is becoming richer and stronger by the day, especially in the east and south of the country. The “War on Drugs” is defeating the “war on terror.”

We can’t do both, and (as the piece points out) the latter is a hopeless enterprise everywhere, not just in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the drug warriors continue to allow their misbegotten war to take precedence over the real one.

[Late Monday afternoon update]

Let Afghan poppies bloom:

In a bold move some years ago, Britain tried to buy up the poppy crop, spending more than