A farmer harvests opium in Afghanistan.
Photograph: B K Bangash/AP"PARAS TO BLITZ DRUG LORDS" today's Sun tells us with its usual masterful understatement. Inside is a double-page colour "exclusive" about how 1,000 of our "elite Paras" will battle the heroin warlords in a part of Afghanistan dubbed "Mad Max Land", writes James Sturcke.
Though the story is unfortunately unavailable online, there is a leader that gives a pretty good idea of what the Sun says is going on. A quick glance at a three-month-old copy of the Observer has a very similar story. The two main developments are the Sun's assertions that the Paras will be sent in and that the poppy fields will be a main priority.
The poppies do look likely to be in the line of fire. Last month the defence secretary, John Reid, told the House of Commons that "opiates, drugs and narcotics remain a huge problem" in Afghanistan. "In my view, no country can develop a stable, sustainable and uncorrupt form of government unless and until that is dealt with," he told MPs on July 7.
Today a Ministry of Defence spokesman said "security" would be the main priority of the army's mission when, as previously announced, it moves into the wilder southern lands of Afghanistan. He did not rule out that stamping on the drugs trade could fall under the security umbrella, though he insisted a decision about which troops were to be deployed was yet to be taken.
It is already clear that British force numbers will be increased in Afghanistan before the UK takes command of Nato's allied rapid reaction corps in May. The MoD, despite calls for details made under the Freedom of Information Act, has thus far refused to specify the numbers involved. The betting among the press hacks is somewhere between the Sun's 2,500 and the Guardian's 4,000. Currently there are 800-odd Gurkhas in Kabul, some Harrier crews flying out of Kandahar and probably some special forces, which the government refuses to comment on.
