Comment on The Belmont Club "The Opium War"

The turn around in Iraq started with the interdiction of the rat lines. Afghanistan is a different war but some things are basic. Petreaus knows his craft. Regarding the drugs, I repeat my desire that we can find some biological agent that will destroy the crop. Regarding the culture of the villagers, they exhibit the boundless self pity and fatalism that Islam teaches them. The long term solution is to introduce a moral agent that is the equivalent in the human heart of what the biological instrument will be to the economic threat of the opium. We need to insert and support missionaries and change the culture. We need to change the culture domestically also. We must make the world safe for free people with free thoughts. Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Tao, Bahai or Hindu; all must be welcome.