In Afghanistan, the favorite mascot of the occupation forces is Hamid Karzai,
who is pretending to be president.

Before Iraq, Afghanistan was the chosen site for bombardment in the new
millennium's geography of evil. Thanks to the thunderous victory of the
invaders, there is freedom now. Freedom for drug traffickers.

According to various specialized organizations of the European Union and the
United Nations, Afghanistan has become the world's principal supplier of
opium, heroin, and morphine.

Estimates from these bodies show that in the first year of liberation the
production of drugs increased eighteen-fold, from 185 to 3,400 tons-the
equivalent of $1.2 billion. And since then, it has continued to increase. Even
Tony Blair recognized this past January that 90 percent of the heroin consumed
in England came from Afghanistan.

The government of Hamid Karzai, which controls only the city of Kabul, is
tight with Washington. Of its sixteen ministers, ten have U.S. passports. And
Karzai himself, a former consultant for the U.S. oil company Unocal, lives
surrounded by soldiers from the United States, which gives him orders and
watches wherever he goes and as he sleeps.

The invaders were supposed to stay just two months, but there they remain.
This is why: The incorruptible warriors of the war on drugs have set up shop
in Afghanistan to guarantee the freedom to grow, the freedom to traffic, and
the freedom to cross borders.

Of the reconstruction of this razed country, there is little mention any more.
Ahmed Karzai, brother of the virtual president and prominent figure in the
government, recently lamented: "What did they do for us? Nothing. The people
are exhausted and I don't know what to tell them."