Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Perhaps others have a total security view on Afghanistan and believe the issue can be resolved by force. However, it would take light years to stop this practice through an approach of force. That has already been tried in Colombia where the US and others invested a significant amount of money in an attempt to destroy crops. This had no great effect. President Karzai explained to me during his visit to Ireland for the EU Council's social development conference that these are extremely poor people. They live in the wilds, have no education or societal engagement and will continue to produce opiates as long as such activity continues to be financially attractive in providing some small allowance.

The difficulty is that President Karzai and his colleagues have almost no say in the areas in which the drugs are produced. If he travels 20 miles outside, even though he is heavily protected by the Americans, he cannot operate. So they are still operating in a very small area as he explains. Anytime he moves outside a certain region he is attacked, which is the difficulty.

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