Our anti poppy growing mission in Afghanistan must be the most misguided casus bellum ever. How can we be so very stupid? Prohition of drugs and the inevitable accompaniments of gangsterism and unnecessary and damaging drug wars MUST be ended.

Dane Clouston, Oxford, Great Britain

mr jenkins-
shame on you. like most journalists, you casually gloss over whats positive to dwell on all the bad.
there have been some major victories for security and
stability and democracy in both of those countries. but then,
that doesn't sell papers, does it now? and being a journalist, you have the answer to it all in just a few sentences, eh? while these guys in charge who have studied such stuff as counternarcotics, counterinsurgency,
etc, well, they're all wrong. simon thinks we should do it
thusly. well, i have been to both of those places, and i
am proud of some of the things uribe, karzai, and the US
have accomplished in the name of stability, security and democracy. thank god i don't accept all the tripe the print media puts out cheaply as 'the truth'!

dave c, kansas city,

The new style seems fine. But one complaint: I can't find the Games section. Since losing my husband last year, I enjoy my weekday 'fix' of doing the Polygon -- it gives me an elementary satisfaction to get the average number of words, particularly the word using all the letters. I hope you haven't abandoned this on-line facility for a tired old septuagenarian such as I. I don't want to go back to the paper version (which I'd been used to all my previous life), because there's so much else to read these days, including the books that I so easily order. And I do get the TLS by mail each week. I'm willing to pay a subscription to get the Polygon on line, if that would help!

Ann Coryton Jameson, LONDON, ENGLAND

Thie problem with this article is that success in fighting cocaine in Colombia has encouraged production in other countries.
The amount of cocaine in the west is the same as before.
Therefore success in Afghanistan will only send production somewhere else(an ex Soviet state I would guess)
The problem is not the supply of drugs but the deman
There are only 3 possible solutions :-
1) Harsher penalties (not acceptable politically)
2) Legalisation
3) large scale infiltration of drug suppliers and contamination of drugs with emetics (probably not legal or practical).

David, London,

Excellent article. Talibans, Afghans, Pushtuns will never surrender to the approach devised by the US. One last thing Tony Blair can do before he goes is to come to Pakistan and sit with the real representatives of the people, the Talibans and the Jehadi diaspora in the tribal areas of Pakistan to sort out a just solution of the problem. Only negotiatian and kindness can resolve this growing problem before it is too late.

Saeed, Peshawar, Pakistan

It has been painful watching the internationally agreed policy to eradicate the drug trade failing over the last 30 years. The occasional year that was no worse than the one before has always turned out to be a false dawn.

Failing policies persisted in ultimately start to corrupt and destroy other policies. That is now happening in damage to the promotion of democracy in Latin America, and in Afghanistan. It is difficult to put aside our high hopes in face of reality but the longer we put off the radical review of drugs policy, the worse we will find the damage.

David Heigham, Madrid, Spain

Hi
The Times online is good for me because i could not get a paper today and i would of found the the Chinese CD great as Im visiting China in june for a month, but never mind, good reviews.
Bye

suzanne holmes, Birkenhead, Wirral, uk

The cheapest solution would be for the US to buy up the whole Afghanistan poppy crop for slightly more than the drugs cartels could afford. This would not alienate the country by destroying its staple crop, and it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than a 10 year war followed by an ignominious retreat. When one adds to this the reduction in crime and social costs that would result, it becomes a 'no brainer'. Unfortunately, America does not have that sort of pragmatism.

Roddy Campbell, Christchurch, New Zealand

a good article, if only the US had listened to us in 2001, we would have avoided this mess.

The Taliban are the only people capable of bringing peace to Afghanistan. They must be weaned away from Bin Laden and opium. I think this is very possible, after which time will allow them to develop into a more sophisticated government. It is silly to try and implement our ways on Afghans. They must do these things themselves.

akram, London, UK

The most effective action would be to collapse the Narco economies by legalising drug use in the consumer countries. Supplying drugs to those who require them in a safe and controlled manner would mean that the price for raw opium or cocoa would be dictated by governments and not criminal gangs, by removing the many middlemen from the supply the price and demand would fall, farmers would look to other crops for profit or perhaps even grow food. This policy would not require a single soldier in the producing countries or any other type of force. The huge resources freed from our Military,Police,Prison and aftercare services along with the massive cut in domestic crime could be spent on drug education and treatment to begin cutting demand. Prohibition has no effect other than to create a highly lucrative criminal supply chain,

Huw Williams, Milford Haven, U.K.

I simply cannot understand why no-one seems to support the simplest solution to the Afghanistan opium problem; this is for Western governments to pay the Afghan farmers well over the market price for their poppy crop, and transform it into morphine - which could then be used medically. This solution is far less expensive (and much simpler) than waging war against tribesmen who have no other sources of income and a very long history of ferocious independence. It would also (and ironically) use free market forces to destroy the funding relied on by the Taliban (and others) who currently depend on this trade to finance their activities. "L'argent est le nerf de la guerre", as they say round here - so is not the obvious solution simply to paralyse the nervous system?

John Halford, Paris, France

Simon Jenkins is of course entirely correct. Indeed, his thesis could be extended; we could characterise what passes for the West today as the source of several damaging "demands" that are eagerly fed by criminal supplies. In addition to Opium (and it by-products) we also invite: human organ harvesting, the embryo trade, human trafficking, African child adoption, mass (illegal) immigration, to name just five. Kill off the sources of demand and presto, no more problem. But, doing that might disturb the cozy incomes (or immoral expectations) of some of the shameless rubbish that constitute a significant part of our moneyed, liberal elite.

Errol Flynn, Chester, England

Why doesn't Simon Jenkins tell the truth? Afghanistan's Musa Qala is now in the hands of the Taliban because British forces were the victims of London's 'liberal' policy of 'handing control to local tribal leaders' - with these latter turning out to be none other than the Taliban themselves! No wonder the Americans are contemptuous of such self-serving and idiotic 'liberalism' in action!

Jenkins doesn't have a single word of criticism for continental European politicians' abject - and disgraceful - refusal to provide troops to fight alongside American, British and Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Why not? A war is only 'unwinnable' if you don't fight it. Does Jenkins approve of continental Europe's refusal to fight? The fact that he doesn't say, says everything.

Last week Minette Marrin raged against those who have betrayed our civilisation. Jenkins' liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.

Terry Daly, London, Great Britain

Brilliant analysis. It confirms the old saying that third rate managers (President Bush) surround themselves with fourth rate people (Neoconmen?!)

Andy, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

I totally agree the war on drugs is stupid.You only have to look at prohibition in the USA to see that it only breeds criminality which we are still paying for today. The current "war" has already been lost so why not admit it and change direction. Use the vast amounts of money saved in drugs education and providing criminals with an alternative path in life. People have to take responsibility for their own lives. If you take drugs and die, so be it, your choice, as with smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.

On the specific subject of Afganistans opium, why can this not be bought up by phamaceutical companies and converted into legal drugs. Huge amounts of opiates are used annually in hospitals and in pain relieving drugs. So far I have never heard anyone mention this potential solution.

Mike Dickinson, Stockholm, Sweden

To oldasiahand - Why is it that many of you Brits love to bash America? We are the best of friends. We are not perfect and neither are you. When we were dragged into the two world wars of the last century we went in full force with winning as our goal. Now that the shoe is on the other foot all we get are meager committments with so many strings attached that you might as well have stayed home. Thanks alot. True friends show what they're made of when the chips are down. I've started to feel that Britainistan is no longer a friend.

Charles, Philadelphia, US

I agree, make drugs legal and take care of needs here (USA) and let China keep order in the world, should be a interesting time.

If we are really lucky perhaps order will collapse world wide, then we will be able to judge the problems from our bunkers.

Take care when you wish for change.

james johnson, waukesha, usa/wisconsin

The first step in problem solving is to define the problem. The problem with the US, and by implication the UK, is they don't know in Afghanistan just what the problem is.
Pre-9/11 the Taliban were not a problem. They contolled poppy production and the passage of an oil pipeline. It was only OBL and 9/11 that changed that. But OBL is no longer on the radar. For PR reasons to support the invasion of Afghanistan all sorts of worthwhile reasons have been dreamt up. The politics of invasion have lost momentum and we're left with PR thinking - it that's not an oxymoron.

eddie reader, bimingham,

nice reading.
nothing new

Omer, Calicut, India

I agree with just about every word in this piece. Defeat may have a silver lining: the effective collapse of NATO and US economic and military dominance of Europe. Effectively losing wars in Iraq and Afghainistan would have the US turn increasingly inward. It is time policy makers thought this through instead of their reflexive grovelling subservience to an evil America under an incompetent and corrupt administration.

oldasiahand, Guildford, Surrey