Teresita: Do NOT destroy the opium crop.
Convert the whole plant into something useful
Namely petroleum. Then refine it into useful products.

You will be able to produce enough to meet the limited needs of Kabul and a couple of other places.

The secret to success will be to use wind,solar, draft animals and even manual labor to provide the energy for the conversion. That way you avoid a petroleum overhead that eats up the gains.

This may not be a commercially viable way of doing things as the cost of the equipment can easily preclude any real return on capital. Nonetheless, revenues should exceed operating costs making it a good way to put Taliban
on the rocks.

Trouble in Afghanistan is not Iraq, it is that nobody has applied the kind of thinking General Petraeus brought to Iraq. Which is that if you want people to be on our side, pay and employ them in ways they understand.

And by the way, this illustrates how too much government here (The War on Drugs) enables our enemies there. All other forms of unitary government and prior restraints do the same to one degree or the other. Including those measures you approve of.

Signing off now, have a long day ahead of me with my new street sweeper. 8 Guage you know. Have got no use for those puny 12 guages.