Sarah Chayes rethinks opium eradication

A gem from her Afghanistan Policy Action Plan:

Rethinking eradication. In line with new authorities agreed upon by NATO, interdiction efforts should be aimed not at growers, but at traffickers and profiteers, even when they hold government positions. A few patient and determined well-placed ambushes on roads linking Urozgan and Kandahar Provinces, for example, could net several thousand kilos of opium paste in a single month.