Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - U.S. Strategy and Operations in Afghanistan and the Way Ahead

Statement

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REP. NEIL ABERCROMBIE (D-HI): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have here a copy of the report you'll be receiving probably today or tomorrow. This is the result of a congressional delegation that I headed as a result of a visit to Afghanistan in another congressional delegation we went on, Iraq and Afghanistan. We went to Europe to speak with NATO folks and French and German colleagues with regard to Afghanistan.

Obviously I don't have all the time to summarize that for you, but suffice to say that with regard to two particular areas, the PRTs and the growing of poppies, hopefully this will lead us to some perspective that might reflect on the testimony you've given. I cannot fathom how we can even begin to think that we're going to deal with this poppy situation with the eradication -- the policy that we have right now -- total failure, nonsense.

The only way you can deal with this eradication is if you do it in what I would call a scorched earth approach involving tens of thousands of troops absolutely wiping it out, controlling the area militarily and then instituting a crash program of some kind, which you've alluded to, about agricultural alternatives that don't even exist. There's not a single landfill in Afghanistan. The hydroelectric capacity is at best diminished. There are no cooling facilities, drying facilities, transportation facilities associated with alternative agriculture. I can't see it. And we don't -- we talk about being there for the long run; I have no idea what that means in practical terms.

I'm the chair of the air and land subcommittee; we're going to deal -- I have to make recommendations to the chairman shortly with regard to working with the Readiness Subcommittee with regard to what we're going to do with the Army. I have to have a summary right now; the mission of the National Guard has completely changed. We don't have a National Guard in this country anymore; it's just an adjunct of active duty operations. We don't have any troops, we don't have any readiness, we don't have any capacity. And now the dollar has sunk out of sight and we're in the middle of a recession. This discussion seems to me to be totally beside reality.

Now what I want to know is -- and I'd be appreciative particularly from Dr. Rubin's point of view -- why don't we buy the poppy crop? Why don't we buy it and use the -- and give the money -- if we're going to -- we subsidize agriculture in this country, we subsidize biofuels, we subsidize everything else -- why don't we buy the poppy crop, turn it into pharmaceutical derivatives of one kind and another, and use the money to begin to try and -- particularly in the south -- start developing an alternative agriculture system, which, according to the PRT people that I talked to, would be welcome, that there's markets for it in the Emirates. Afghanistan has a reputation of being agriculturally -- has terrific possibilities, but you have to have the infrastructure.

So if you're going to use the PRTs and you're going to address the poppy problem in the immediate, why not buy the crop and turn it into pharmaceutical activity of one kind and another and begin a comprehensive infrastructure implementation for alternative agriculture, developing markets and so on, through the PRTs?

What do you think, Dr. Rubin?

MR. RUBIN: Well, first I just want to recall something -- thank you for that question -- something that I mentioned earlier, which is that we have to work on the demand side for agricultural products as well as the supply side, and as long as we have a Bumpers Amendment that --

REP. ABERCROMBIE: I missed what you said. It was on --

MR. RUBIN: There is what appears me -- I haven't been able to investigate it -- there is a rather promising project for a creation of a textile and oil seed industry in southern Afghanistan --

REP. ABERCROMBIE: Yes.

MR. RUBIN: -- which USAID said it could not fund because it conflicted with the Bumpers Amendment because --

REP. ABERCROMBIE: Yes, I understand that. I've discussed all this with the AID and all the --

MR. RUBIN: Okay. Now, the problem with offering to buy the poppy crop is that only 3 percent of the land in Afghanistan is now planted in opium poppy. If you say you're going to buy all of the crop, then everyone will plant that. There's no -- even if you bought -- no matter how big the legal crop was, there would still be an illegal crop.

However, there is a very good idea in that proposal, which you mentioned, which is the question of agricultural subsidies, price supports and so on. Farmers in Afghanistan, in fact, are asking for that. I haven't evaluated --

REP. ABERCROMBIE: That's why I brought it up.

MR. RUBIN: Yes, in Helmand, for instance, which is the leading area where opium poppy is grown, it used to be a major cotton- producing area and some of the infrastructure is still there and could be rehabilitated. So there might be some potential for bringing -- for guaranteeing them prices for cotton and other kinds of commercial crops. And in fact, the Afghanistan government and the U.S. Embassy and others in Kabul are working on such a proposal right now and we would like your support for it.

REP. ABERCROMBIE: Well, obviously I don't have more time to pursue this now. My principal point, Mr. Chairman, is is that simply to cite that we have to do things in this area -- cite agricultural alternatives or cite dealing with eradication or cite dealing with NATO troops and ISAF needing a different approach doesn't accomplish it. We have to have some practical implementation or all is lost there.

MR. RUBIN: Well, I would like to just add that I am myself a private investor in Afghanistan, and with some other investors I have founded a company for the manufacturer of essential oils for perfumes and personal care products. And from my experience in trying to run a legitimate Afghan agricultural-based industry for the past three years, I can explain to you at length why more people do not do it.

REP. ABERCROMBIE: Under present circumstances I can see. But you're also there because there is a market if you had stable security to be able to pursue it. Is that not correct?

MR. RUBIN: That's correct, but we could use some help on shipping. At the moment there's no way to ship those products from --

REP. ABERCROMBIE: That's my point.

MR. RUBIN: -- Afghanistan to the markets.

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