While all the focus is now on debating a “surge” (escalation might be a better word) in Iraq, the drug warriors continue their assistance to the jihadis of Afghanistan:

British soldiers in Afghanistan have been warned to expect a fierce Taleban backlash from renewed efforts to quash the narcotics trade. The new governor of Helmand province insisted yes- terday that he would force through plans to eradicate poppy fields, despite fears that it could jeopardise Western efforts to win the support of the Afghan people. “It will create some problems, but we have to do it,” Assadullah Wafa told The Times in his first interview with a foreign newspaper. British officials fear that spraying will alienate impoverished smallholders and push their communities into Taleban control.

It’s time that the White House was held accountable for this. Victory (or an approximation of it) in Aghanistan is too important to be thrown away by this peculiar obsession with poppies. If we want that crop out of circulation, then buy it and, if necessary (it’s not, there’s a worldwide morphine shortage), dump it in the ocean.