Afghan Drug Trade Complicates U.S. Task in Marjah - TIME

"Having captured the town, NATO and Afghan officials face a quandary that, if mishandled, could jeopardize the operation's goal of turning Marjah's people against the Taliban. Local farmers are just a month away from harvesting the area's primary crop, opium poppy. Playing by the rules, the crop should be destroyed, but such an action could swiftly turn the local population against the Western alliance, and the 'government in a box' they brought to Marjah. Says one farmer, Mohammd Rahim Khan, 'I spent lots of money on my field and so did my neighbors. If the government officials destroy the fields, nearly all the people will rise against them.' That's why, according to highly placed Afghan officials, U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal opposes wiping out this particular poppy harvest." TIME.