Topic: U.S. Wants NATO Help In Afghan Anti-Drug Efforts

USA Today
September 25, 2008
Pg. 8


U.S. officials are pressing NATO allies to perform counternarcotics operations in Afghanistan, targeting an opium trade that fuels terror networks there.
So far, the effort has not been successful. and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has expressed some doubt that the allies could be persuaded.
As an interim measure, U.S. Army Gen. John Craddock, the top NATO commander, said he would like allied forces to go after drug facilities where the opium is processed into heroin.
Drought and anti-drug campaigns helped slash Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation by 19% this year over 2007, but a United Nations report said the country is still the world's leading source of the heroin-producing crop.