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Fitzjames Wood's avatar

Riff, wasn't there also a suspicion that heroin on the streets of black neighbourhoods in the US during the Vietnam war was a result of US military airlifting opium from Vietnam and sending it back to the US and covertly distributing it as a deliberate policy to weaken black communities who were seen as a threat re: The Civil rights movement?

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Riff McClavin's avatar

Right. Way more than a suspicion. The CIA loves having unlimited off-book funding away from the pesky oversight eyes of congress, as lame as that is these days, and if that means empowering so-called terrorists or drug cartels, then so be it. It's all for the greater good, as they see it. We saw the same thing with cocaine in Central America with the Contras in the 80s and I'm certain these behaviors haven't magically stopped.

Here's the thing, even without any suspicions: The American military with all their resources and toys have been there for 20 years and Afghanistan is a major source of opiates. If they couldn't stop the flow drugs after all this time, then that alone is reason enough to yank their "incompetent" asses out of there, and I use that term in its most ironic form possible.

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Riff McClavin's avatar

*the flow of drugs. Dang, Caitlin, I hate having no edit button. ;-}

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Katherine Mulholland's avatar

or being unable to post images like US soldiers guarding opium crops in Afghanistan.

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JohnOnKaui's avatar

Gary Webb's book Dark Alliance: https://archive.org/details/dark_alliance_original_series-gary_webb_cia_cocaine

Funny isn't it how this dovetailed with Biden's crime bill he was so proud of.

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