Politics
On March 24, Russia and NATO discussed efforts...
to be in the business of fighting, not agriculture. Besides, large units would be required to protect these "crop-dusters", turning the campaign into a military operation, and an expensive one at that.It would be no less expensive to hire civilian contractors or drug-enforcement agents, who would also require the protection of troops to prevent casualties. This is not a viable option.
NATO claims that it has already tried various ways of destroying plantations with little success. General Stanley McChrystal, the current ISAF Commander and Commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A), says destroying plantations does not fit the new strategy of winning the "hearts and minds" of the Afghan people.
NATO claims it is pointless to destroy these plantations because the Taliban has stockpiled tremendous amounts of opium, which they could sell uninterrupted for the next few years without growing new crops. And still new opium is being grown.