Winning hearts and minds in Afghanistan

We’ve blogged repeatedly about Afghanistan’s poppy problem, or rather the West’s problem with Afghanistan’s poppies. Now, thanks to English Russia, via Zyalt, comes a remarkable set of photographs showing how exactly one goes about destroying a field of opium poppies. And, incidentally, someone’s livelihood.

Women and children run out into the field. They cry and throw themselves under sticks. A month later, they might have reaped the harvest and sold it. For many of them this money was the only way to survive another year in this godforsaken place.