Quote Originally Posted by Tribesman
Edit for Pannonians post
Now if we buy out the Afghan crop of opium at a higher price than their usual contacts offer them, we could probably gain the near-unconditional support of the Afghans, remove nearly all support for the Taleban, and be able to set up whatever system of government we want as long as we keep paying up.
Hisorical prescedent , the British went in and were doing the big payoff , it worked for a while , but then was getting too expensive so they cut the payments .
There's certainly currently a market for opium, otherwise they wouldn't keep growing it and people wouldn't keep buying it. Our bringing light and peace to these parts isn't winning us friends, so why not start bringing in green and taking away the red?


I wonder what happened to the Brits (and Empire troops) that were there once the money was cut .
The old saying , you can rent an Afghan but you can never buy him .
Simple, keep enough troops there to keep outsiders from buying into the market on the pretext of keeping the suplpy routes open, any found doing so being treated with extreme prejudice. Let the Afghans themselves organise the supply of opium, pay them as it comes in so they can see both the paymaster and the direct link between their efforts at keeping the peace and their payout. We'll therefore always be paying a year's harvest in advance, but the profits should more than pay for it. If the market disappears, cut and run, or keep a presence there but reduce the scale of operations in case the market picks up again.

There's no need to make friends of the Afghans, they've no interest in becoming our friends anyway. Identify a common interest, and ally for as long as that interest remains mutual. And always be prepared to scarper when things turn sour.