Evgeny Khrushchev's blog

27 March, 2010, 10:15

NATO disinformation operation


Russian Counterdrug Tsar General Ivanov has given NATO a last chance to prove its mettle in Helmand against opium poppy cultivation – but the alliance has blown it again – after its patent failure in counterterrorism & counterinsurgency ops in Iraq & AfPak.

With tacit prodding from the US viceroy of Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, NATO, instead of unleashing IO and psyops to support defoliation of Helmand killing fields, opted for lobbying narco-farmers’ interests and has launched a gray propaganda campaign against Russia’s unyielding stance to nip the Afghan opium in the bud.


To get the difference between the Russian position and Western brainwashing, compare both sides of the same story:

TimesLive claimed that “According to figures cited in Ivanov’s speech, Russia was the single largest consumer of heroin in 2008, with 21 per cent of world production ending up in its territory.”

And this is what General Ivanov actually said, referring to Afghan drug stats:

“International heroin consumption in 2008 amounted to: 21 per cent in Russia, 26 per cent in Europe [wake up, NATO, this is you!]”…

“It’s shocking that annual civil losses in the NATO countries due to heroin overdoses are 50 times higher than their military losses in Afghanistan. This is confirmed by the data provided by UNODC Director Antonio Costa regarding annual death of 10,000 citizens of the North Atlantic Treaty countries caused by Afghan drugs.”
NATO: US propaganda enforcement agency

NATO spokesman James Appathurai perfectly parroted US poppy-centric policy: "We cannot be in a situation where we remove the only source of income for people who live in the second-poorest country in the world without being able to provide them with an alternative. That is simply not possible."

I’m at loss how to qualify this poison pill, sugarcoated as "a slight difference of views": highly enriched narco-propaganda or lowly depleted intelligence?

1. [Opium is] the only source of income? C’mon, James, there are plenty of opportunities for local tribesmen – that is, if you don’t consider them fast-food morons – in addition to filling jihadist job opportunities, they could create or join posse comitatus (Arbakai) against the Taliban and their feudal land/drug/war lords; enlist in the ANSF or a private army of contractors and NGOs; migrate to Pakistan or apply as “freedom-farmers” for drug asylum to NATO countries.

2. Remove the only source of income without an alternative? Don’t sweat it, partner – stop searching for a McDonald’s menu and start reading the US GAO “Afghanistan Drug Control” testimony’s fine print: “Funding allotments for US alternative development and agriculture …totaled $1.4 billion (sic!) from fiscal years 2005 through 2009.” (Page 4). Amigo, read my lips: for one-and-a-half billion bucks allegedly spent by the State Department on “alternative development and agriculture”, you could have built a Napa Valley in Helmand! Where’s the money, James?

Frankly, Appathurai deserves a standing ovation for blurting out NATO’s top-secret motto of mighty military impotence: “We cannot… That is simply not possible.”

When at last NATO is laid to rest, this will be an epitaph engraved in gold on its tombstone.