The Cost of Misinformation: How Flawed Strategies Fueled Terrorism and Drug Trafficking in Afghanistan"

The strategies have an essential role in fighting drug production, trafficking, and terrorism. Therefore, they should be based on accurate and unbiased data. In addition, the strategies should be monitored regularly, and necessary revisions should be adopted.

One of the most essential elements in losing the fight against terrorism was wrong strategies based on biased data and information in Afghanistan. The NATO, UNODC, US, and UK Governments didn't accept that Terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan were linked with drug production in Afghanistan until 2009. This caused a grave mistake in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking in Afghanistan. For years and years, the Taliban and other terrorist groups used the income from the drug trade to fund their armed activities. They recruited and trained thousands of fighters by using the drug money. By the time they accepted the fact that the illegal drug trade was linked with terrorism, it was too late. The radical groups infiltrated all mechanisms of government, and corruption reached unbearable levels. As a result, NATO realized that they were losing the fight and decided to leave Afghanistan. Once again, this decision was based on wrong analysis and biased information. Because the NATO, UN, US and UK government officials believed that the Taliban had changed and they would bring better life conditions to Afghans. However, afterwards, the chief of the UN admitted that the Taliban didn’t keep its promise and that they were all cheated. The UN, US, UK and NATO officials didn’t make a proper analysis and didn’t establish their strategy based on unbiased information and data. As a result of two critical wrong strategies of these officials, Afghanistan is now in the hands of the Taliban regime, which is still on the terrorist list of the UN, the US, the UK and many other countries. But, the worst thing is that no one took responsibility for these mistakes, and the ones who made such strategic terrible mistakes are still in their positions and enjoying luxury income. The Afghans are paying the bill and suffering under a regime which is far from human rights, and the Afghan youth and women are losing all their hopes day by day.

One another strategic mistake was about the opium stocks in Afghanistan. The UNODC, US, Europol, and UK Governments didn't accept the existence of opium stocks in Afghanistan (despite what I wrote and told them during my service at UNODC). The primary responsibility goes to the UNODC management, which misguided the international community. In addition to this, the same UNODC managers continue to misguide the international community about the Opiate Main trafficking routes. Such as, despite the UNODC accepting the existence of 12 million opiate users in India (see World Drug Report drug use and prevalence tables), the organization never questions the source of opium/heroin consumed in India. The organization still says that the Balkan route is the main opiate trafficking route despite the fact that the number of heroin users in India is 4 times higher than in Europe. Also, the UNODC reports that there is large meth production in Afghanistan. However, there is no analysis of the beneficiaries of the meth production and opium stocks in Afghanistan. Such biased, lacking and wrong information causes the development of wrong strategies in fighting against drug production and trafficking.

I urge the reasonable, relevant managers in the NATO, UN and main donor countries to develop their strategies based on unbiased data and information. Furthermore, such strategic data and information should be produced on time. Such as, the UNODC Afghan Opiate reports are released almost 10 months after the opium poppy harvest is completed. The World Drug Report is based on the data collected two years before the report is produced (such as the World Drug Report 2024 analysis based on the data collected/released in 2022). For that purpose, it is essential to reform drug- and terrorism-related data collection and analysis. Furthermore, it is essential to conduct an independent monitoring of data produced about drugs and terrorism. Otherwise, not only the people of Afghanistan but many other nations will continue to suffer because of the wrong policies and strategies.