Afghanistan War: is it terrorism or a fight against opium?

Introduction

On September 11 Osama Bin Laden and his followers attacked America by hijacking four commercial airliners. Two smashed into each of the two World Trade Centers in New York, One rammed into the Pentagon, and the last one was brought down by revolting passengers sacrificing their lives for others who might have died if the attack was successful. The battle lines were drawn that day. (Meher, 125)

The United States is not fighting against Islam but the terrorists of the world. Bin Laden is being targeted because he has confessed in a home made video in a cave of planning the hijackings. President Bush has declared war and we have begun bombing in Afghanistan. Are hijacking planes and flying into them morally correct? I think it is morally wrong because the hijacker has to kill people on the plane then we he crashes it, it ended killing thousands. Killing or murdering is wrong. The terrorist has openly decided and probably had time to think about his actions before he would do them. No one had a gun to his head forcing onto the planes, it was obviously planned and executed with complete consciousness. (Marsh 10) The only possible right that could have been done was if he truly meaningfully thought that every person in those attacked buildings and Americans should die. Only if God told him too which isn't very likely. The attacks on America were morally wrong. It will be pretty hard for us Americans and people around the world to forgive these people.

Discussion

It is a measure of this country's virulent opium trade, which has helped revive the Taliban while corroding the credibility of the Afghan government, that American officials hope that Afghanistan's drug problem will someday be only as bad as that of Colombia. (Goodson, 27) While the Latin American nation remains the world's cocaine capital and is still plagued by drug-related violence, American officials argue that decades of American counternarcotics efforts there have at least helped stabilize the country. “I wanted the Colombians to come here to give the Afghans something to aspire to,” Mr. Balbo said. “To instill the fact that they have been doing this for years, and it has worked.” To fight a Taliban insurgency flush with drug money for recruits and weapons, the Bush administration recognizes that it must also combat the drug trafficking it had largely ignored for years. But plans to clear poppy fields and pursue major drug figures have been frustrated by corruption in the Afghan government, and derided by critics as belated half-measures or missteps not likely to have much impact. (Fiscus, 10)

“There may have been things one could have done earlier on, but at this stage, I think there are relatively limited good options,” said James F. Dobbins, a former State Department official who served as the administration's special representative on Afghanistan. Poppy growing is endemic in the countryside, and Afghanistan now produces 92 percent of the world's opium. But until ...