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[0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda [author] author Peters, Gretchen [isbn] isbn 0312379277 [isbn13] isbn13 9780312379278 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 320 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.57 [num ratings] num ratings 237 [date pub] date pub 2009 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition May 12, 2009 [rating] Lucas's rating 3 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 0 [votes] votes 0 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Nov 28, 2009 [date added] date added Nov 22, 2009 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [format] format Hardcover [29] actions view [review] 
review The greatest value of this book that it transforms the war on terror into the more conventional war on drugs, and reduces puritanical holy warriors to The greatest value of this book that it transforms the war on terror into the more conventional war on drugs, and reduces puritanical holy warriors to hypocritical drug lords. It's understandable that the Taliban and Al Qaeda would favor the former narrative over this new one, but why our leaders on the opposing side would would prefer it also is more of a mystery that the author doesn't speculate about. The best reason I can think of is that as of 2001 we had already been fighting the 'war on drugs' for three decades, and it is obviously just a police action where success is measured by the degree of containment and there will never be achievement of complete victory. Existing domestic (though minority) opposition to the drug war would also figure in. Playing up the clash of religions also works for both sides, but I think that is less significant. The book would benefit greatly if it had a better model of heroin economics. The author states that reducing opium production will raise the price of heroin, and therefore it is a wash- but she doesn't show this. Does for example halving production double the profits- or triple them, or raise them only by 50%? Even at the end of the book she says the goal must be to shift poppy plantings to other regions where the profits will not go to militant anti-Western parties, so it follows that reducing the production for long enough in Afghanistan will create price pressure that will increase production elsewhere. But even within the book's simplistic model, there are contradictions in her recommendations- fields and farmers should not be targeted since the reduction in production will increase profits, but at the same time we should be going after smuggler convoys, Afghan chemists who can convert the poppy to heroin, and the big-time smugglers in Afghanistan and Pakistan- that may be a good strategy for other reasons but it would also tend to reduce the supply of heroin the same as attacking the fields. The author takes for granted that the drug profits are benefiting forces who are thinking up and capable of executing spectacular attacks against the West. This is more likely to be true in central Asia than anywhere else, but the corrupting effects of the drug trade work both ways- eventually they will only care about perpetuating the business, and recruits will be enticed by a share of the proceeds rather than virgins in the afterlife. The case of Iran is interesting: Iran suffers a huge drug problem both in terms of addiction and the corrupting effects on the government (which gives lie to the claims of the Taliban that is is okay to produce a prohibited drug if only infidels use it), but it appears to be supporting the Taliban in order to undermine NATO. The likely explanation is that like in Pakistan (or in rarer cases the U.S. with the CIA) the autonomy of the intelligence services can frequently act in opposition to the best interests of the civilian government. The strategy of hoarding and dumping of poppy by the Taliban prior to the U.S. invasion is interesting, and there is speculation that the Taliban will reduce production voluntarily or anticipates a field spraying campaign, and it will then cash in on new hoards. ...more
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