Lesson for the kids: Drugs and guns and bad writing don't mix.

It sounds like a series of bad movie plots being tested in real time.

You have the action-crime-comedy (or thriller) of soldiers trying to smuggle drugs out of the country using military equipment.

Or the slasher horror with soldiers going ballistic and killing people and collecting bits of them of souvenirs. (Link below)

And at that point you would want to file that screenplay in the unmarked circular cabinet next to your desk and hope for something better to drop into the inbox.

But no. Although the investigations, and concurrently the news stories, are still in an ongoing process, more sticks have been poked into the proverbial bicycle of Afghanistan’s relations with the West, which recently has been struggling up and down more hills than a Tour de France novice. If at least one of these cases proves to be true, everyone is going to be in a world of hurt.

Let’s take the first story. British soldiers have allegedly (key word here, if it’s not true I will be relieved) used military planes to transport heroin out of Afghanistan. In addition to the fact that you really should not be smuggling drugs while you are trying to wage war in a foreign country, this case highlights the issue of where a lot of the money flows in Afghanistan: the poppy fields and the opium produced which can raise cash for warlords in the countryside.

Journalists have trained their spotlights on the airstrike of the day and the political debate of the week for so long, ongoing concerns such as drug trafficking aren’t mentioned quite as often. Like the plant, the issue has been there for a while, growing and wilting and then growing again. Destroying poppy fields, paying farmers to destroy poppy fields, trying to find other sources of income for the farmers, are all methods that have been tried and not proved particularly successful so far.

It’s the money that’s the concern. The money from selling the opium is likely to fund campaigns by warlords and insurgents in areas such as Helmand. Coincidentally, opium poppies are primarily grown in Helmand province, where a lot of British soldiers are currently stationed. Possibly the same soldiers that may or may not have bought heroin. Made from opium.

[2 hours later]

It was at this point where I had finished writing a much harsher version of the above paragraphs, when I double checked the news articles I’d read.

This word sprang out.

“Unsubstantiated.”

Basically, no evidence for the claims.

Phew.

Also, I may have jumped the gun a bit.

So this is a lesson in basic journalism: try not to Monday morning quarterback while the game is still going on. In the two hours I’d left this article alone, the situation had changed. For the better too, although security measures are going to be increased and the suspicion still lingers as the Royal Military Police are going to investigate. Nevertheless, I went back and rewrote most of this entry.

So that’s the thriller flick taken care of. What about the horror?

The second story is much more serious as it is, even when you don’t count the macabre element of the orthopedic souvenirs. I don’t pretend to know what makes a soldier tick, what gets him out of bed in the morning and back into it at night, what makes him finally snap.

And I try not to judge as a civilian when cases like this come up in the military. War is hell on anyone.

But even as the investigation continues, as Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell stated, “whether ultimately proven true or not, [the charges] had already damaged the U.S. military's reputation.” Which is really the last thing they need in a country where you’re not sure if the local you’re working with actually likes you or not.

Until the case is fully made to light, this is one screenplay that is not going to be discarded just yet, no matter how much we want it to.