In 2009 opiate production was down 10%, so now they are around 84% of the world's production.
They still have more acres cultivated for poppies than are cultivated for coca in South America.
So it remains that a ton still comes from Afghanistan.
The UN report for 2003 (last year data is available) claims the bulk of the 22 million problem drug addicts in the world are opiate users.
So if there are say 15 million problem drug addicts and 83% of the opiates come from Afghanistan then 12.45 million problem drug addicts are using Afghani sourced drugs, or more people than are in Greece.
Half the imported US oil comes from an OPEC nation
The top five source countries of U.S. petroleum imports are Canada (19%), Saudi Arabia (12%), Mexico (11%), Venezuela (9%), and Nigeria(85)
43% of the oil in the US comes from the US.
Where your oil comes from is more of a regional thing - west coast, some from Mexico, alot from Alaska and California, some from the Great Basin and Great Plains
The ideologies of bin Laden started before Desert Storm, as a teenager in the era of heightened Islamic fundamentalism, he radicalized early. The crackdown following the Grand Mosque Seizure and the subsequent embracing of Wahhabism by the government further pushed him down the path of radicalism like his half brother Mahrous bin Laden.
The Saudi government's decision to stand up to Iraq and fight a conventional war with the aid of the west just pissed Osama off more.
Furthermore, cars are regulated, stealing a car to commit a felony is an extra felony, driving a car to take someone else to a bank robbery is a felony.
The terrorists used mobile phones and tools like Google Earth to plan, coordinate and execute the operations, India and Israel have been howling about those tools ever since.
Alot of folks, especially here on/. go "military! killers", I wasn't specifically calling you out on that.
Good post and I agree with some of it, but I also saw alot more racial stuff at College (U of South Dakota, Oregon State, Portland State) over the years than I ever did in a small town with alot of evangelicals.
I just read Mosab Hassan Yousef's book and that shows you don't need to college to deradicalize and someone from a evangelical home can learn to love the other side(s).
Example from my college experience, two brothers from a traditional Lakota upbringing. One goes to college (CU) and one goes into the Army for a 2 year stint. At age 25 one is a radical calling for the overthrow of the government and return to some mythical "roots" and one is settled down raising a family and with a god job.
The militant radical is the one that went to CU, he was radicalized by his professors (including Ward Churchill) and the brother that went in the Army is the one who is working and taking care of a family.
University in the United States is not a mix of vocational training and citizenship.
That's what the United States military does, they take someone out of high school and train them up to steer 4 billion dollar warship or "own" a 140 million dollar fighter-bomber in 2-4 years as a maintenance tech. While installing a work ethic and respect for elders, society and other citizens.
I've lived in the dorms with 17-22 year olds and now I live in an apartment complex with a mix of 18-25 year old soldiers and airmen, I have no illusions about who acts and lives like a "good citizen".
And before you go on about how all the military does is train killers, only about 6% of the US military are combat occupations. Yea, there are some combat MOS living here and you can tell they are steely eyed killers, but they hold the elevator for you and say "good morning sir" every time you see them.
Yea, thats my understanding too. I grew up in South Dakota and there were bottling plants in Rapid City, Aberdeen and Sioux Falls, so no where more than 150 miles away.
"Close Guantanomo within a year? Umm, no" He tried, the Republicans shut him down.
Umm, thats a complete Executive Branch decision there so unless the Republicans somehow took control of the Presidency and then gave it back to Obama, that doesn't work.
'"There is a lot of inertia” against closing the prison, “and the administration is not putting a lot of energy behind their position that I can see,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and supports the Illinois plan. He added that “the odds are that it will still be open” by the next presidential inauguration.
And Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who also supports shutting it, said the effort is “on life support and it’s unlikely to close any time soon.” He attributed the collapse to some fellow Republicans’ “demagoguery” and the administration’s poor planning and decision-making “paralysis.
But Mr. Levin portrayed the administration as unwilling to make a serious effort to exert its influence, contrasting its muted response to legislative hurdles to closing Guantánamo with “very vocal” threats to veto financing for a fighter jet engine it opposes.
Last year, for example, the administration stood aside as lawmakers restricted the transfer of detainees into the United States except for prosecution. And its response was silence several weeks ago, Mr. Levin said.”'
The leading Democrat on SASC won't put blame on the Republicans and puts blame squarely on the White House.
This is correct, the Russians always have bad luck with Russian agents placed in the West, but did really good with politically sympathetic people in power or greedy ones looking for the money.
Your link also has the number 1.8 million people, the fact is no one knows how many died in the 400 years between the European re-discovery of the Americas and the closing of the Frontier in 1890.
I was talking exclusively about the Northern Great Plains.
Things like the Conquest of Mexico and the plagues there might very well have been from local vectors like Hanta and not caused by the Europeans.
What about the Jews who were kicked out of Persia, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen?
The insanity was the Arab world's decision to throw the Jews into the sea in 1947, 1967 and 1973. No, the Arab world couldn't stand the thought of a tiny trip of land with Jews on it, so they decided to refuse Israel's right to exist, something that blew up in their faces.
Had Poland, the United Kingdom and France not treated the Holocaust survivors like the cause of the Second World War and given them some options other than death and concentration camps things might have turned out differently.
Israel is not founded on a religion, it's founded on an racial heritage, something that's true from Morocco to Vietnam across Africa and Asia.
Israel is at war with terrorist groups trying to destroy it (Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc) and nation-states it's in conflict with (Syria and Iran).
Slashdot Mirror
Oregon, Washington and Alaska are further west than California.
In 2009 opiate production was down 10%, so now they are around 84% of the world's production.
They still have more acres cultivated for poppies than are cultivated for coca in South America.
So it remains that a ton still comes from Afghanistan.
The UN report for 2003 (last year data is available) claims the bulk of the 22 million problem drug addicts in the world are opiate users.
So if there are say 15 million problem drug addicts and 83% of the opiates come from Afghanistan then 12.45 million problem drug addicts are using Afghani sourced drugs, or more people than are in Greece.
Not a "drop in the bucket".
Half the imported US oil comes from an OPEC nation
The top five source countries of U.S. petroleum imports are Canada (19%), Saudi Arabia (12%), Mexico (11%), Venezuela (9%), and Nigeria(85)
43% of the oil in the US comes from the US.
Where your oil comes from is more of a regional thing - west coast, some from Mexico, alot from Alaska and California, some from the Great Basin and Great Plains
http://www.eia.doe.gov/ask/crudeoil_faqs.asp
Not much comes from Afghanistan?
In 2007, 93% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/AFG07_ExSum_web.pdf
The ideologies of bin Laden started before Desert Storm, as a teenager in the era of heightened Islamic fundamentalism, he radicalized early. The crackdown following the Grand Mosque Seizure and the subsequent embracing of Wahhabism by the government further pushed him down the path of radicalism like his half brother Mahrous bin Laden.
The Saudi government's decision to stand up to Iraq and fight a conventional war with the aid of the west just pissed Osama off more.
Bank robbers don't kill 175 and wound 308 people.
Furthermore, cars are regulated, stealing a car to commit a felony is an extra felony, driving a car to take someone else to a bank robbery is a felony.
The terrorists used mobile phones and tools like Google Earth to plan, coordinate and execute the operations, India and Israel have been howling about those tools ever since.
Alot of folks, especially here on /. go "military! killers", I wasn't specifically calling you out on that.
Good post and I agree with some of it, but I also saw alot more racial stuff at College (U of South Dakota, Oregon State, Portland State) over the years than I ever did in a small town with alot of evangelicals.
I just read Mosab Hassan Yousef's book and that shows you don't need to college to deradicalize and someone from a evangelical home can learn to love the other side(s).
Example from my college experience, two brothers from a traditional Lakota upbringing. One goes to college (CU) and one goes into the Army for a 2 year stint. At age 25 one is a radical calling for the overthrow of the government and return to some mythical "roots" and one is settled down raising a family and with a god job.
The militant radical is the one that went to CU, he was radicalized by his professors (including Ward Churchill) and the brother that went in the Army is the one who is working and taking care of a family.
Bull.
University in the United States is not a mix of vocational training and citizenship.
That's what the United States military does, they take someone out of high school and train them up to steer 4 billion dollar warship or "own" a 140 million dollar fighter-bomber in 2-4 years as a maintenance tech. While installing a work ethic and respect for elders, society and other citizens.
I've lived in the dorms with 17-22 year olds and now I live in an apartment complex with a mix of 18-25 year old soldiers and airmen, I have no illusions about who acts and lives like a "good citizen".
And before you go on about how all the military does is train killers, only about 6% of the US military are combat occupations. Yea, there are some combat MOS living here and you can tell they are steely eyed killers, but they hold the elevator for you and say "good morning sir" every time you see them.
Yea, thats my understanding too. I grew up in South Dakota and there were bottling plants in Rapid City, Aberdeen and Sioux Falls, so no where more than 150 miles away.
Pepsi only had two at that time.
Not true everywhere.
I'm in Alaska.
My Coca-cola is bottled in Anchorage or Juneau.
My beer is generally bottled in Juneau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Brewing_Company or sometimes Bend Oregon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deschutes_Brewery
My water comes from the tap so it's local
Those things are pretty much all I drink
Alaska was and is a bit more liberal with email rules in the Government.
I work for the Alaska government in a quasi-state agency and we've never even been issued an acceptable use policy document for the Internet.
"Close Guantanomo within a year? Umm, no"
He tried, the Republicans shut him down.
Umm, thats a complete Executive Branch decision there so unless the Republicans somehow took control of the Presidency and then gave it back to Obama, that doesn't work.
'"There is a lot of inertia” against closing the prison, “and the administration is not putting a lot of energy behind their position that I can see,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and supports the Illinois plan. He added that “the odds are that it will still be open” by the next presidential inauguration.
And Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who also supports shutting it, said the effort is “on life support and it’s unlikely to close any time soon.” He attributed the collapse to some fellow Republicans’ “demagoguery” and the administration’s poor planning and decision-making “paralysis.
But Mr. Levin portrayed the administration as unwilling to make a serious effort to exert its influence, contrasting its muted response to legislative hurdles to closing Guantánamo with “very vocal” threats to veto financing for a fighter jet engine it opposes.
Last year, for example, the administration stood aside as lawmakers restricted the transfer of detainees into the United States except for prosecution. And its response was silence several weeks ago, Mr. Levin said.”'
The leading Democrat on SASC won't put blame on the Republicans and puts blame squarely on the White House.
Right and Left both suck in the US right now.
At least the scandals on the right are Republicans with rent-boys and gay flings. The left has Al Gore getting all handsy in Portland.
They seemed moderate if not a little paleocon when they started, but rapidly caught a case of the crazies.
Now they are even having Neocons speak at their rallies and total nutjobs like this Sharron Angle run as a teabagger.
Wow, I bet that was a controversial article at National Review to put up, I know some of the folks there absolutely despise the teabagger phrase.
He is absolutely right, I remember watching the Teabagger movement's start on TV and wondered why the hell they were calling themselves that.
I absolutely will keep referring to them as the Teabaggers.
This is correct, the Russians always have bad luck with Russian agents placed in the West, but did really good with politically sympathetic people in power or greedy ones looking for the money.
The killing of the American Bison was not a "government policy" but due to the market demand for leather in Europe.
Your link also has the number 1.8 million people, the fact is no one knows how many died in the 400 years between the European re-discovery of the Americas and the closing of the Frontier in 1890.
I was talking exclusively about the Northern Great Plains.
Things like the Conquest of Mexico and the plagues there might very well have been from local vectors like Hanta and not caused by the Europeans.
Casinos in the United States are gaming organizations set up and established by the Indian Tribes, not the White man.
The genocide of Armenia, Greeks and Kurds was far more organized than the American Indian Wars that lead to the conquest of the United States.
Example, the Northern Great Plains Indian Wars from 1850-1890 lead to about 3,000 white deaths and 8-11,000 Indian dead.
600,000 Armenians "died or were massacred during deportation" in the years 1915–1916.
What about the Jews who were kicked out of Persia, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen?
The insanity was the Arab world's decision to throw the Jews into the sea in 1947, 1967 and 1973. No, the Arab world couldn't stand the thought of a tiny trip of land with Jews on it, so they decided to refuse Israel's right to exist, something that blew up in their faces.
Had Poland, the United Kingdom and France not treated the Holocaust survivors like the cause of the Second World War and given them some options other than death and concentration camps things might have turned out differently.
Israel is not founded on a religion, it's founded on an racial heritage, something that's true from Morocco to Vietnam across Africa and Asia.
Israel isn't at war with itself.
Israel is at war with terrorist groups trying to destroy it (Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc) and nation-states it's in conflict with (Syria and Iran).
The price of Gasoline in France is not 14.5 dollars a gallon.
Its currently around 7 dollars a gallon.
My truck (1991 Chevy full-sized) has only needed two batteries in its life and it's been through three sets of tires in it's life.
The first ten years my truck was a South Dakota farm truck.
So the batteries have lasted 9.5 years on average and the tires 6.33 years.
"...opponents of gay marriage who wanted to keep their identities secret" == Catholic Democrats