The UN has released its 2007 opium report, noting that production has soared to a “frightening level” this year, as poppy growth increased to a record level last year.

Opium production in Afghanistan, a $3-billion-a-year trade accounting for more than 90 per cent of the world's illegal output, soared to frightening record levels this year, concentrated mainly in the strife-torn south where the ousted Taliban, which once banned poppy cultivation, now profits from the drugs trade, the United Nations reported today.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2007 Annual Opium Survey showed that the area under opium cultivation rose to 193,000 hectares from 165,000 in 2006, while the total opium harvest will soar by more than a third to 8,200 tonnes from 6,100 tonnes last year.

The amount of Afghan land used for growing opium is now larger than the combined total under coca cultivation in Latin America - Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. No other country has produced narcotics on such a deadly scale since China in the 19th century, the report said.[emph added]

That incredible change in growth is only in the southern part of Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban has swept back out of the Waziristan tribal regions where they retreated during invasion of the country in the aftermath of 9/11. As we know, after Messers Bu$h and Cheney decided to go after the oil in Iraq rather than the terrorists in Afghanistan, things have changed in Afghnistan.

In the centre and north, where the Government has increased its authority and presence, cultivation is dropping. In Balkh province cultivation collapsed from 7,200 hectares last year to zero. By contrast, 80 per cent of opium poppies were grown in a handful of southern provinces on the border with Pakistan, where instability is greatest. In volatile Helmand, where the Taliban insurgency is concentrated, cultivation rose 48 per cent to 102,770 hectares.

With a population of just 2.5 million, Helmand has single-handedly become the world's biggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entire countries - like Colombia (coca), Morocco (cannabis) and Myanmar (opium) - which have populations up to 20 times larger.

That’s why this Afghan farmer is smiling: Mr Bu$h’s ego-war in Iraq is making him a wealthy man (relatively.) As you can imagine, the real profit is in production and distribution of the opium, either as is, or after conversion to morphine and heroin. But Afghan farmers double and triple their income when they put in poppies.

This increased production will show up in America’s streets next year, as thousands more of our countrymen become addicted to this pernicious drug.

I can’t say enough bad things about the narcotics trade; anyone with a basic imagination can estimate the misery and degradation that follows behind the needle.

We will probably see a lot more poppies on American streets, too, as Mr Bu$h and Mr Cheney get their woodies on when they decide to attack Iran later this year or early next year.

He has vowed that he will not leave office without first ensuring that Iran cannot become a nuclear power. He has probably given the leaders of Israel a similar promise --- privately and perhaps explicitly. That means that he is effectively committed to attack Iran militarily before January 2009 if all other means of accomplishing the objective fail --- which they will. He believes deeply that Iran poses an existential threat to our ally Israel and an extremely dangerous threat to the American people, as well. Bush also believes that Iran is determined to sabotage American hopes of establishing a "new Middle East" ---- by covert support of anti-American terrorist elements such as Hizballah and Hamas --- backed up by the added power implicit in its eventual possession of nuclear weapons. Given Bush’s overarching dedication to “winning the Global War on Terrorism”, the neutralization of Iran has become a sine qua non, equal if not higher on his list of priorities than “victory” in Iraq --- another impossibility that he is stubbornly unwilling to recognize, even privately --- much less acknowledge publicly.

I admit to be entirely cynical about Mr Bu$h’s “overarching dedication to ‘winning the Global War on Terrorism’.” I frankly think he doesn’t give a Chinese fart about whether terrorists kill 15 or 15 million Americans – once he’s out of office. If he had cared he wouldn’t have turned his back on the “real fight” in Afghanistan. He would have bent his prodigious will to the effort to protect our cities, rather than frittering away anti-terrorism funds protecting petting zoos and carousels. He has consistently dodged logical and consistent measures to roll back the resistance in Iraq, allowing things to spin out of control. And then there’s the remarkable amount of attention he gave to the August 6th, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing.

Bush presently intends (with little faith or sincerity) to exhaust all opportunities to achieve his objectives by diplomatic means or through economic sanctions. Failing those, he will attempt to achieve his purposes by intimidation --- by raising the threat of military attack. This will only stimulate more internal support for the regime inside Iran and more international opposition to U.S. policies, especially in the Muslim world. Without question, moreover, an escalating danger of US-Iranian military confrontation will greatly intensify internal and regional opposition to US objectives in Iraq. (Note: A mystifying disconnect in logic persists on this point in Bush’s mind.)

To think that an attack on Iran will not bring the internal dissidents of the country to rally around the flag is stupid. Has he forgotten his rather Orwellian propaganda campaign to get his own dissidents to rally after 9/11?

After the attack in Iran, we will see more poppies on the streets of America.