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Western Afghanistan is ideal for growing poppies, and as demand for other cash crops has dried up over the years, Afghans have turned to poppy fields to earn a living. Currently, 93% of the worlds opium used to make heroin comes from Afghan poppy fields. Much of that revenue is used by the Taliban to procure weapons and kill American soldiers. One would think that as US troops move into the country’s westernmost provinces, they would but slashing and burning the poppy fields as they go. But they’re not. They don’t want to upset the locals.
“It's kind of weird. We're coming over here to fight the Taliban. We see this. We know it's bad. But at the same time we know it's the only way locals can make money," one soldier told the Associated Press.
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