Afghanistan Sets Record High For Record Highs

You could literally have written this article any year since the invasion of Afghanistan.

Opium poppy production in Afghanistan reached another record high last year and Kabul must do more to stop it, a US State Department report says.

The report says that the poppy cultivation helps Taleban insurgents obtain money and weapons.

The drug trade hinders progress towards economic stability and democracy, the report adds.

Afghan poppy production doubled in 2002. The crop set a record high in 2004. And in 2006. And in 2007.

This is what you get when you have a weak and ineffectual central government that only controls 30 percent of the country. Afghanistan is a narco-state. And additionally it's a frightening place to live for women. I remember when they pulled Laura Bush out to deliver these somber speeches about women's rights abuses under the Taliban and how we had a moral duty to act. What's she thinking now?

Grinding poverty and the escalating war is driving an increasing number of Afghan families to sell their daughters into forced marriages.

Girls as young as six are being married into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple members of their new relatives. Banned from seeing their own parents or siblings, they are also prohibited from going to school. With little recognition of the illegality of the situation or any effective recourse, many of the victims are driven to self-immolation – burning themselves to death – or severe self-harm.

Six years after the US and Britain "freed" Afghan women from the oppressive Taliban regime, a new report proves that life is just as bad for most, and worse in some cases.

NATO is trying to gain a foothold in the tribal and Taliban-held areas. Women's rights is the furthest thing from their minds. 87 percent of women in Afghanistan have experienced domestic and gender-based violence. 60 percent are pushed into forced marriages. Illiteracy is at 88 percent. One out of every nine women die during childbirth.

This, mind you, is the WELL-MANAGED war. An opium factory where women have next to no rights and the Taliban has almost as much control as the government we installed.

UPDATE: Good news, the US and NATO have re-affirmed their commitment to Afghanistan! Now we can expect the same craptastic results that we've seen since October 2001!