Nicki Sobecki

Afghanistan's Tipping Point

Afghanistan is now in the tenth year of its current war. There are not enough foreign troops on the ground to achieve their mission; bombing their way out of trouble is counter-productive; senior members of the Karzai government and the police force are corrupt; the Taliban and the other insurgents get rich through the opium trade and by protection rackets that allow convoys taking fuel to Nato troops get to their destination. And more and more insurgents are being supplied, and seek refuge, across the border in Pakistan's tribal areas.

What western intelligence and military officials call the most dangerous part of the world has reached a tipping point.

Success in eliminating Afghanistan’s notorious terrorist networks is vital for the US and the world; even more so now that the rigged presidential elections in Afghanistan in late August have created a deep political and security crisis for Afghans and Western forces there.

Compounding the problem, opium sales have ballooned since 2001. Afghanistan today provides 93 percent of the world's heroin and from the poppy growers, to the Taliban and other local powers, to the drug lords and their allies in government, the influence of opium money pervades Afghan life.

On a hill overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan, sits an Olympic-size pool built by the Soviets in the 1980s. It is said that the Taliban forced criminals off the platforms to their deaths at the bottom of the pool, August 2009.
   
In central Kabul, Afghanistan, a poster of President Hamid Karzai is hung next to the image of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a legendary ant-Soviet resistance leader known as the “Lion of Panjshir”, August 2009.
   
A boy carries a poster supporting presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah at a rally in Kabul stadium, Afghanistan, August 2009.
     
  
A suicide car bomb exploded near the main gate of the NATO headquarters killing three Afghans and wounding 70 on August 15, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsiblity.
   
(l) Men stand in line to cast their ballots while taking part in Afghanistan's presidential election in Kabul on August 20, 2009.(r) A group of women vote in a classroom in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 20, 2009.
   
An Afghan electoral worker helps explain how to cast one’s vote to a man at a polling station in Kabul, August 20, 2009.
     
  
A drug user sleeps on the side of the street in Kabul. While Afghanistan's narco-traffickers ship vast quantities of the drug to Europe and the United States, enough of it stays behind to offer a cheap and easy temptation to the people at home, August 2009.
   
Afghanistan's men and boys are not the only people who have fallen prey to the drug, August 2009.
   
The 'Deadly Beauty' is one of the Afghan names for heroin addiction, a rather new phenomenon in the country, where in the past opium was only cultivated and sold, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2009.
     
  
A 13-year old girl stares out the window after smoking opium with her mother and siblings, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2009.
   
(l) In a routine for the first day of rehabilitation, an addict had his head shaved. Kabul contains a handful of drug treatment clinics, but they have nowhere near the capacity to treat the number of people in need, August 2009.(r) Addicts at the detox center bathed after shaving, August 2009.
   
At the Nejad Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, a man has just had his head shaved on his first day of rehab, August 2009.
     
  
A funeral in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2009.
   
A family gathers in a graveyard next to the Russian pool in Kabul, Afghanistan, to honor the dead on Friday, the Muslim holy day, August 2009.
   
In downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, men gather outside a mosque to feed the local birds, August 2009.