Securing Afghanistan's Future Against Opium

Since 2001, the United States and its NATO allies have been committed to helping the Afghani government build a stable and democratic country. However, the insurgency led by the Taliban and fueled by Afghanistan's illicit opium industry is unraveling these positive developments, undermining the central government and threatening to make Afghanistan once again, a safe haven for terrorists and their organizations. Efforts by coalition forces have been hampered due to a shortage of funding and manpower mostly attributed to the simultaneous operations and attention given to the operations in Iraq. The lack of troops and resources has resulted in a security vacuum which the Taliban has filled. Regaining and establishing security while simultaneously interdicting opium after it has been harvested are the coalition's best means of significantly reducing the Taliban's funding source and weakening the insurgency. In achieving the objectives of security and opium reduction, coalition forces must be keenly aware of both the desired and undesired effects that their military operations have on the Afghani peoples and how those effects contribute towards Afghanistan's strategic political end state of winning the support of the Afghani people and defeating the insurgency.