Pubdate: Wed, 05 Dec 2001
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Michael R Uth

THEY BOTH HATE THOSE POPPY FIELDS

I'm scratching my head over Bill Bennett's statement in his Nov. 29 
editorial-page piece "our enemies in Afghanistan have derived considerable 
sustenance and resources from the drug trade." The enemies he refers to 
presumably do not include the Taliban, dedicated as they were to leveling 
the famous Afghan poppy fields. So earnest were the Taliban as drug 
warriors that President Bush sent them millions in drug war support only 
months before the Sept. 11 attacks. When it comes to the degree of coercion 
thought proper in controlling what adults choose to do with their own 
bodies, Bill Bennett and the Taliban are of like mind. Jihads and drug wars 
are merely two sides of the same irrational coin.

Michael R. Uth Beachwood, Ohio
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