During the last part of the eighteenth century, the residents of the thirteen American colonies waged a war of revolution against the British government in order to resolve their long-standing grievances.  The revolution was fought so that American residents could find uniquely American solutions to the problems inherent in living in a free society, and under the rule of law established by a democratically elected central government.  In the days of its infancy, and in the decades that followed, the people of this new nation worked together to find solutions …

After almost ten years of  U.S.  involvement in Afghanistan,  the American people have almost nothing to show for their spent treasure,  spilled blood, and thousands of disabled sons and daughters.  Not only is the war against  the Taliban insurgents going badly, but the entire Afghan economy has become totally dependent on the billions of dollars of military spending, combined with billions more in civilian economic assistance.   In fact, The World Bank has estimated that 97 percent of Afghanistan’s anemic economic output is from spending related to the international military and …

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Once again, the weird and wacky world of  Afghanistan politics has taken center stage.  The issue this time, like many other times in the past, is Afghanistan’s bumper crop of illegal heroin.  As the world’s leading supplier of heroin for decades, if not centuries, the population of this impoverished and war-torn nation know full well the importance of their country’s only, real cash crop.  The fact that illegal Afghanistan heroin has made its way into every major crime syndicate in the world, and the fact that this highly …