Washington, DC, Dec. 15 (UPI) — U.S. military forces may take a larger role in the anti-narcotics campaign in Afghanistan, a top general said Wednesday.
“We don’t want to be in a lead role on this, but we have an awful lot of assets over there that can provide support to other organizations that will go out and do this,” said Lt. Gen. Lance Smith. Deputy commander of U.S. Central Command at a press briefing Wednesday.
Smith said the U.S. military is considering offering more dedicated surveillance flights and possible reconnaissance satellite missions to find poppy fields.
It’s a markedly changed attitude from a year ago.
“We have spent a lot of capital in trying to build relationships with the people in there and now this has potential for us to do things that wouldn’t be popular for some of the areas we’re operating in,” Smith said.
“But it is absolutely clear to us…that everything that we’ve done in Afghanistan would be for naught if we allowed the narcotic traffickers and everybody else to take over. And so it is clear that we have a role to play, and it will be up to the secretary and actually National Security Council to determine the role that we would play in that. Right now we are working to provide as much support as we can with the assets that we have in theater.”
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