I agree with some of the author's points but the assertion that the US makes money from the drugs trade is plainly drivel. Individuals and gangs might be making a lot of money from the heroin trade but none of this is fed into the federal finances of the US, UK or any other country. The reality is that over 50% of all crime in some western countries is now linked to drugs. The impact is enormous costs to all the countries affected. For this reason, the Taliban have moved from their original anti-drugs stance to being actively involved in the drugs trade. If the US and UK forces go back to burning poppy fields, they will simply increase support for the Taliban amonsgt the farmers who cannot make a living from traditional cash crops. Furthermore, putting an end to the production and smuggling of drugs is not the primary remit of the military in Afghanistan. Their concern is to keep the Taliban out. Turning to the other dodgy assertion "They engage in military action only when they are attacked". Again, this is plainly untrue. The highest casualty rate amongst British troops this month is directly related to operation Panther's Claw, a five week offensive in Helmand province. The other highly effective but also controversial offensive actions have been the ongoing targetting of Taliban and Al Queada leaders in their hideouts in North West Pakistan using UAVs. The negotiations with "moderate" Taliban are because the US and the UK would like to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible but worry that the Taliban would return, as before. They are trying to get some Taliban involved in "normal" politics to try to reduce the possibility of a return of the full Taliban regime.

In my opinion Usa state is biggest drug dealer! If you follow theirs record in Vietnam,Laos,Columbia and now Afganistan, you will find hard evidence of that.In my country(west) some 5 years ago was shown, on tv (real true story) Usa pick up more then 2000 kg of cocaine from Columbia, in CIA plane with,with cia personel and flight to Usa. Latter on(tv) a insider show all of those in the dill(they cia cards,numbers,pictures etc) witch fitt with film shown. Also 4 Columbian witness ( to on the same film)come forward and bring more hard material evidence(include- cups left with some cia personel fingerprints on,etc).They been loading CIA planes more than 20 times before...a rutine job! Usa(others to) got a hiden black fonds. A pocket money for cpecial purpose!Columbia,Kosovo,Afganistan all sell theirs 90% of drugs to Usa. How can we explane 30-40 times production up,after usa trups come in those states!?You dont fight what you indeed- support! Mr.Gareev comment is truth!Afganistan fake war(9/11-a inside job)is only a try to stop Russia,China(all Asia) to make united (economy,millitary,etc)policy on the world stage, by spread of haos,terrorism and wars in heart of Asia-so they can build bases and stay there-with (excuse) reason that we need their "help"(like in Iraq).This policy is DOOM -by Russia and China(CSTO,SCO) smart play .. It was a blunder for Usa, and it will add to their finale and complete end...

You write: Americans themselves admit that drugs are often transported out of Afghanistan on American planes. Drug trafficking in Afghanistan brings them about 50 billion dollars a year – which fully covers the expenses tied to keeping their troops there. Essentially, they are not going to interfere and stop the production of drugs. Do you really have any verifiable proof of this or is it just covert intel foolishness? My understanding is that Afghan drug sales were maybe $500,000,000 per year, not $50,000,000,000 per year. I'm afraid that making outrageous and false claims only devalues any supposed objectivity you want.

I am really satisfied with seeing a comment from JG. It confirmed to me what I already new. That western regime’s agencies are closely following what has been written on RT. And here they are, writing under the pseudonym of JG. Trying to deny undeniable that yes, their regimes do make money off the drug trade. Especially American regime is prone on doing that. It is the main culprit of all of the evil that has been going on in this world. And no wander that they went to Afghanistan. They are after the drug industry of that country, besides some other goals as well. I thanks Mr. Gareev on being so plainly clear in speaking out openly about the main goal of American’s regime in that country. Yes, they are after drug money, as that is their last chance by which they try to cling to some kind of financial security. Their countries, especially USA, are bankrupt, and there is no forcible alternative at how are they going to sustain some kind of financial security for themselves. And if it were not to the stupidity of the European people in the WWII, in which they destroyed each other’s countries, you Americans would never have been what you have been for the last 50 years, so called “ world power”, hahaha. That bonanza is over people. And from now on you better prepare yourself for living in the poor country that is fighting for its survival day by day. The future masters of the world are coming to the horizon: Russia, China, India and Brazil. And you better get used to that. And yes, they are smart enough not to allow you to pit them against each other. They will just keep making money honest way. Something that is totally out of reach to you. Your agency can keep making these kind comments on Russia’s main media outlets, but I just wanna let you know that we know who is writing them. So, keep writing, that is all that is left to you.

CIA drug flights during the Vietnam war were documented and pretty well accepted as fact, according to the professor in a 20th Century World History class I took last year. He did not consider that CIA drug flights out of South America were "proven" yet, which I took to be code for "we are not yet allowed to believe those stories". I believed them because I lived through that era and remembered the news articles. It was funny to see the response from those students fresh out of high school, where the unsavory aspects of CIA history are probably not taught very much. One guy in the back row seemed to suddenly wake up and asked, "CIA drug flights? WHAT CIA drug flights?" I just laughed to myself. Zak, please keep quoting facts and keep backing them up with all the documentation you can. Eventually we in the USA will admit some of the stories are true - at least in college classes.

The good General's comments sound like Aesop's sour grapes to me. Russia failed in Afganistan and they would seem to hope the USA does too.....

Hey Dragan, you are on to something when you say the american and western regimes are profiting and encouraging the drug trade, it is pretty much how all the covert operations are funded, dirty money that isn't accountable. And yes JG does sound like a stooge. But I think you are a bit off course in thinking that just the western powers are in bed together, the new worlders are grooming China and especially India, [ already ruining their agricultural base through Monsanto genetics, but a story for another day ]. Follow the money trail, the international bankers and industrialists are calling all the shots, the common people go on oblivious to whats happening right in front of them. Thank God the RT seems immune to the influence these evils can bring - fight the power.

RE: ME Janssen If I copy you right sir, we shall wait for your" truth"(by yours standards)in some future time..I always look for hard evidence about anything what i write and my text is complete truth! Usa is also no.1 terrorist state by droping nuclear bombs on Japan(for fun and experiment)and ongoing "terror" wars.You also kill 23 millions innorcent people from 1945 around globe.Usa (English)commit genocide on native nations(biggest-unseen crime in human kind memory) and stole their Land-you live on stolen property! Usa fake moon landing,Racak-fake- massakre in Kosovo,fake-WMD in Iraq,9/11(inside job)!A drug dill of Usa is just a snack break... Shall I go on? For all of this you got 1000 plus hard evidence!I bet you never learn and say your students, the TRUE facts base on real evidence in history and call them by theirs REAL names!Learn your kids, that every your pesident from1945 was a GENOCIDE WAR CRIMINAL based on truth and real hard evidence(reasons for wars,number of kill innorcent people,way of killing,places of crimes,etc)and yet in your own state you send people in prison for a PARKING TICKET! Keep lieing yourself-we know who you are, and we as a free and truly democratic world will get you in the end! I got Q: for you:in your ongoing wars - how many innorcent kids you kill today? True fact or a lie? Thanke you...

OK Dragan and others... Where's the evidence of drug money going to the US government (or any western government)? Have you got some links we could look at, some leaked documents, photos - anything other than just wild assertions? Let's face it 50 billion bucks would be a bit tricky to hide - there would have to be a paper trail for money in this quantity. Probably everyone believes that Iraq was partly a personal vendetta for George Bush and partly for oil and to benefit a number of US companies run by high ranking republicans (e.g. Dick Cheney and Haliburton). However, I don't think many people will believe the money from drugs idea - unless you have some actual facts to back it up. If it is (as I suspect) just a anti-American story, you should bear in mind that this detracts from the credibility of stories on issues like Georgia and South Ossetia, where Russians are still not getting their point across, despite having the facts on their side. I am intrigued that you think that I am a pseudonym for a western intelligence agency. Maybe I should ask one of them for job (although I don't think I would get the necessary security clearance).

Oh JG, what a fantasy land you must live in. You honestly think the US and others don't engage in illicit drug and other equally nefarious activities just cause you don't read about it or see it in the totally controlled media? Or do you think our media is telling us the real story? How many times do they have to get caught lying before you stop drinking the kool-aid and realize that something is very wrong. How did the contrived recession and phoney bail out work out, or the WMD's, gulf of tolkin, bay of pigs, the health care debacle, had enough!! This crap has been happening for years, we were warned by Eisenhower in his last presidential address that dangerous men in the industrial military complex were taking over the govt, [neo-cons] Kennedy tried to stop them, he was going to try to abolish the Federal Reserve [the engine these bastards run on] and we see the outcome. All the politicians now bow and genuflex to these vermin, the media is controlled, the education system is corrupted, any one who stands up to them is crushed, just ask Ron Paul - his campaign was wildly sucessful in the streets and on line, but in the main stream media he was dismissed as a fringe candidate, and the sheep like you who believe the media made this lie into reality. It happens all the time. stop being controlled and look deeper into things, its the only way we can be free.

JG: Mike Ruppert confronting the CIA director of the time about the CIA dealing drugs in LA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t3pl5Wxgyg 50 billion hard to hide ? you're kidding right ? something like 25% of the pentagon's budget is UNACCOUNTED FOR.

Zak, I think you misunderstood me. I fully believe the US government is dealing drugs through the CIA, but how much of that is actually "admitted" in conventional high school and university classes is quite another matter. I believe USA will be more honest about it, but not for many years. Not until the current "Powers That Be" are dead and buried for a decade or two. Meanwhile we have to "read between the lines" of mainstream news stories. For example, it was just a bit ironic when Congress talked about reducing funding for the Afghanistan war last year, and then-President Bush said he could live with it, because the war funding was "already in the pipeline". I had to laugh at that story. Which "pipeline"?

I have read that article and the 12 comments before this one. I shall not argue about the exact amount of that drug dealing and will no discuss the sillyness of the topic. You, all forgot a detail of great importance. US and NATO have over 100000 soldiers in Afghanitan. To make opium drugs, you need pavot. Those poor afghans, often to survive, grow fields of that plant because neither of the envahissers teach them to feed their families differently. When fighting the talibans, with the success that we know, those terrorists (as we call them) run away in the mountains or in Pakistan. Pavot fields don't hide. It will be easer to burn; flame-throwers exist since a long time. Why don't we use them ? Because, as related by RTTV, that drug reach first Russia and kill thousands of her young boys and girls; weakening that country as much as possible. Far away, in Columbia, we do likewise but there, it is the young americans who die and those who do not like America applaud. What a cynical World ! It remain of my own case. I had worked for 15 years at a great US aerospace company. The last two years, machining composite-material. As it happened to several friends (all US citizen) I developped illnesses, like skin- cancers. I had two lungs' infection in a six months period. My family doctor told me to move out of that shop and the company's said it was just some kind of flu. After a few peniciline shots, he send me back to work. We all asked for a transfer and to show our good will, took night course in programing. All transfers were refused. Personnaly, I left wife, house and a lovely american family to come back to France. Luckily, I had a good friend living in the Alps mountains, near Annecy. With the still clean air of this erea, my lungs repaired themself well. In the USA, during the presidency of the most anti-social president (Reagan), some of my friends got sicker and sicker. A suivre

Second part From that personnal experience, I realized that for some cyical greedy "bastards",working-humans are just makers and consumers; money is a lot more important than peoples. That cancer and those capitalists who initiated that system are destroying Mankind, taking away her values and morale; making so many humans "prostitutes and "collabos" like I see it done, here in France. Since I have discovered the kind russian people (mostly in Orenburg) my best wish for 2010 and the future is: Do not become enslaved by money and the corrupted fews. Try to make Russia, the good example, America has failed to be. . Think Positive ! Sincerely. Jean-Claude Meslin

JG, I understand how you feel. But do understand that if you follow variety of media, you would have found over years a great deal of information on the relatoinship between drugs trade and covert operations. This is how they are generally financed. After all, the drug kingpins know that their position at the top of criminal networks is dependent on the mercy of authorities. Without it, the drug trade would be conducted by the armies of thousands of independents. Governments love kingpins, as they control those under them, and there is a steady flow of cash upward to the few at the top. So, Governments profit, and the kingpins profit. The little operators are disposable. You may remember the evidence of such linkages to Mexico drug cartels. The US African American community was very upset over the findings on how the government facilitated influx of drugs to California. That investigation was shot down quick. I hope you understand what you are asking for. The most dangerous mix on planet is the link between big business, drug cartels and governments. Freedom of speach does not mean much to these types. I can provide you some info available recently on the topic. Look at UN Report on Afghan drugs, UNODC of 10/21/09. Just a very good, factual review. Then September 2, 2009, Pepe Escobar, Asia Times Online, on the issue of drug cartels in Colombia and the government links. Also, a bit on another European cancer cell, Kosovo. Article is called: US Arc of Instability Just Gets Bigger; Ahmad Kawoosh: Helicopter Rumors Refuse to Die of 10/26/09, ATOL. But if you can, find anything that you can from A.K.Bhadrakumar, a thirty year career Indian diplomat, and the best expert on the region. Specifically, "US Googs Afghan Election", of 11/02/09. There is a piece there worth a lot, as it offers a path of research --- if you are so inclined.

JG, here is a bit more. Prof. Rahimi, Belkh University, has researched the business of Taliban forces from Helmand being ferried by NATO troups or contractors to the north, specifically Baghlan, Kunduz and Samangan. In US press there was plenty of informatioin of Taliban showing up in areas that were never affected by the Taliban problem. For one, this is area of former Northern Alliance, that fought Taliban till the day US invaded. Northern Alliance then joined NATO in routing Taliban. In short, no Taliban ever set foot in Northern Alliance area. Yet, oblivious to the implications, most US press reported of Taliban incursions. Germans were stationed there, and saw no action. Until Kunduz happened and took everyone by suprise. Prof. Rahimi claims that the Taliban from Helmand has been ferried there by foreign forces helicopters, all unmarked. The purpose is to try to take over smaller areas closer to Central Asia borders, destroy their police station, tribal leader and any armed men. It is speculated that from there US friendly Taliban will take drugs easier to Central Asia. The earnings from the money is going to supply the militants in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgistan. The three are the most vulnerable to the contagion of militancy. Most commentators believe that this is the way Central Asia will be undermined; NATO forces cannot do it, but the paid mercenaries can. And the pay to mercenaries is comming from drugs. This is why people say that US is earning drugs money. Not directly --- no. But if it is used to pay for covert activities in Central Asia, then it is the same thing. This is how the drug bosses earn money, buy protection from foreign forces, and give away the rest to the "protectors" favorite "charities". The results are already visible in the amount of militant activity in these regions. It is from Kyrgistan that the Chinese Uigur region is being destabilized. Who is paying?

JG, one more lead, but by all means, use your own research capabilities. The arrival of Taliban in unmarket helicopters was documented and recorded by 209th Shahin Corps, Afghan National Army in mid-October. This unit observed their arrival, as it happened to be in the area. Fought Taliban to withdraw, and the helicopters picked them up and left the area. The significance here is: the airspace is completely controlled by NATO. So, if these are "contractors", they are doing it with NATO permission. Karzai is investigating.

This article needs some backup data. It is too bad that RT does not tap into the superbly documented analysis by M.A. Bhadrakumar, a thirty year career Indian diplomat, whose assignments covered a great deal of Asia. His analysis never lacks data. Here is a good piece from 11-2-09: "The latest broadside in the New York Times, portraying his brother, Wali Karzai, as a drug trafficker, has taken matters to a point of no return. American officials who spoke out of turn have done colossal damage to US interests in Afghanistan. It was probably meant as a desperate, last-ditch attempt to sling some more mud at Karazi. Washington must take serious note that the response to the New York Times report has come from none other than the Afghan Minister of Counter-Narcotics, General Khodaidad Khodaidad. The minister has brought into public debate Afghanistan's best-kept secret: the role of foreign troops in drug trafficking. It was one thing to be dismissive when the former director general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), General Hamil Gul, alleged that American military aircraft were being used for drug trafficking in Afghanistan. It might also have been expedient to simply ignore the issue when well-informed Russian sources made media comments that US troops were doing roaring business in drug trafficking in Afghanistan. But Khodaidad is a highly trained professional who knows what he is talking about. The Indians know him, and so do the Russians. Britain, where he lived in exile for a decade, knows him too. Therefore, when Khodaidad said on Sunday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) contingents from the US, Britain and Canada are "taxing" the production of opium in the regions under their control, he carried a stern warning on behalf of Karazi. It is a simple, direct message: don't throw stones while sitting in a glass cage.

On the other hand, JG, you may prefer not to know. I lived in Matrix till early nineties. When things started happening in the Balkans, I had the first hand knowledge of the mega deceptions and lies. How the truth becomes a lie and how lies become truth. How can victims be declared agressors, and genocidal maniacs mere victims. All is possible, all is whim. All to suit interests du jour, or petty hatreds and vanities of individuals, as well as the real or merely perceived interests of the money people. But the most poisonous of all are those obsessed with power. They always find justification why some actions are required. They will wrap it up into the banner of patriotism, security, protecting national interests. But what drives them is the naked need for power, the need that can never be satiated. Because there is always somebody else that is intransigent, not sufficiently obedient, not bowing deeply enough. These are the ones to be afraid off. We already see the friuts of their work. Loss of economy, financial blunders, and yet to be understood consequences to our ability to fund the basic local governance. We are yet to learn. However, think hard before taking that red pill, there is no way back.