Afghanistan: Opium Fuels the Stalemate in America's Longest War

Oct 25, 2016 | Peter Bergen, CNN
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The resurgent Taliban have captured almost all of the key poppy-growing Afghan province of Helmand. If Helmand were a country, it would be the nation with the highest production of opium in the world, as it produces about half of Afghanistan's bumper crop. The Taliban derive an estimated $3 billion from opium, according to UN officials, money that goes a long way in one of the world's poorest countries. Opium profits help to pay the salaries of what the US military assesses to be a Taliban army of between 25,000 to 30,000 fighters.