Word: opiumeators
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...International Security Assistance Force has 6,500 troops in Afghanistan, but few outside Kabul. The Afghan army of 10,000 men is smaller than most of the militias led by the country's many warlords. Kevin Henry, advocacy director for the charity CARE, says the economy's dependence on opium production is another huge problem. He says 75% of the world's opium supply comes from Afghanistan, employing 1.7 million farmers. "We need to have poppies uprooted and traditional crops grown again," says Henry. The opium problem is linked to the lack of security, because there are no troops...
...just happening in New York. Dance battles are popping up at venues across the U.S., including Atlanta's popular club MJQ Concourse and Miami's Opium Garden and Prive (the site of a much-lampooned Britney Spears-Christina Aguilera dance skirmish last year). "In the clubs you see a lot of battles nowadays," says dancer Wade Robson, 21, creator of the eponymous MTV show. "These dancers are also incredible gymnasts, and they incorporate all styles of dance, from tap to salsa...
...established in the Afghan hinterlands, U.S. officers believe, the villagers will start to deny the terrorists sanctuary. Although one Green Beret says, "It's going to take dumb luck to stumble across Osama," the special forces are confident that someone will eventually give him up. "It may be the opium farmer whose daughter we airlifted to a hospital who thinks he owes us," says an officer who serves as the unit's intelligence chief, "and who comes in with something that we put with 18 other pieces of the puzzle, and we finally get a clear picture." They're still...
...Because of the paltry number of foreign peacekeepers--about 20,000, in contrast to 130,000 troops in Iraq--and Karzai's inability to extend his grip outside Kabul, most of Afghanistan is under the sway of truculent warlords who in many cases finance armed militias through a resurgent opium trade. The Taliban show signs of a comeback, with forces loyal to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar--believed to be hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan--now controlling nearly one-third of the country's territory...
...warlords' land grabs have been sustained by the return of Afghanistan's most lucrative cash crop: opium. Outlawed by the Taliban in 2000, opium-poppy cultivation has spread from eight provinces in 1994 to 28 today. U.N. experts expect this year's crop to yield 3,600 tons of opium--75% of the world's heroin. According to the U.N., the combined income of poppy farmers and opium smugglers last year was $2.32 billion--equal to half of Afghanistan's official GDP. A Western anti-narcotics expert in Kabul estimates that 60% of the country's regional warlords are profiting...