Gates: Target heroin trade in Taliban fight

Cites corruption and funding of foe as key concerns

A member of an antinarcotics unit of the Afghan National police force held a bag of confiscated heroin at their headquarters in Feyzabad, north of Kabul, last month. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

BUDAPEST - Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on NATO allies yesterday to target drug lords running Afghanistan's flourishing heroin trade as part of a wider effort to confront a resurgent Taliban.

"Part of the problem that we face is that the Taliban makes somewhere between 60 and 80 or more million dollars a year from the drug trafficking," said Gates, who is attending a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers.

"The drug trafficking is not only corrosive of good governance because it contributes to corruption," he said. "It also directly funds the people who are killing Afghans, Americans and all of our coalition partners there."

Gates, however, ruled out any large-scale crop eradication campaign, which would likely alienate the country's farmers, many of whom survive on income from growing opium poppies.

General Abdul Rahim Wardak, the Afghan defense minister, said in Budapest that he would "like NATO to support our efforts in a counter-drug campaign."

The potential consequences of a crackdown on the drug trade have been a source of division among the allies. Countries such as Germany and Spain fear that the crackdown could fuel support for the Taliban, and NATO troops have often ignored even overt drug running.

Gates, however, hopes to impress on his colleagues that battling the narcotics trade is a critical front in reversing Afghanistan's deteriorating security situation.

"I don't think anyone in the alliance is interested in eradicating crops or doing things that involve individual farmers," said Gates. "But if we have the opportunity to go after drug lords and drug laboratories and try and interrupt this flow of cash to the Taliban, that seems to me like a legitimate security endeavor."

The NATO meeting comes against the backdrop of a growing alarm in Washington that the war in Afghanistan is in trouble in the face of an increasingly sophisticated and deadly enemy, which combines the Taliban, parts of Al Qaeda and networks of local militants.

Gates said the United States will share the results of an Afghanistan strategy review nearing completion in Washington.

The US military is already planning to boost its current troop level of around 33,000 by another three brigades, or 12,000 to 14,000 troops. The United States also would like to see NATO allies increase their deployment of troops and equipment, not draw down as more US forces pour in.

But Gates stressed that bolstering the military is just one aspect of any new strategy.

"I think we all recognize that there are significant challenges in Afghanistan and we need a better coordinated effort between civilian economic development and reconstruction efforts and the security efforts," he said.

The Pentagon chief also emphasized the need to build up the Afghan Army, which the United States would like to see double in size to more than 130,000 troops.

"We need to have the Afghans in the lead," said Gates. "There is, I think, broad support for expanding the Afghan Army and doing that as quickly as possible."

The United States is seeking financial support from countries which don't have troops in Afghanistan, such as Japan, to pay for the expansion of Afghan forces.

The Pentagon estimates that it could cost $17 billion to build up the Afghan Army.

US officials are also broadly supportive of efforts by the Afghan government to coax parts of the Taliban or affiliated militant groups away from the insurgency, and the Afghan adversaries have reportedly had contact through Saudi intermediaries.