首页
登录
职称英语
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood beside Afghan President Hamid
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood beside Afghan President Hamid
游客
2023-12-19
19
管理
问题
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood beside Afghan President Hamid Karzai, she made an enlightened statement about cutting Afghanistan’s opium production, saying: "It is a problem that took a while to develop, and it will take time to end the problem."
Rice’s statement in March is the clearest confirmation yet of a gradual turn in U.S. policy since early 2004, when the Bush administration and Congress were calling for an immediate crackdown on Afghanistan’s biggest cash crop. Her statement shows the United States’ new patience and acceptance that it will take time for a democratic Afghanistan to eliminate opium production.
When the United States earlier pushed Karzai to immediately end opium production in his war-torn country -- without instituting the repressive tactics that historically have led to rapid success --the United States was loving the Afghan leader a virtually impossible task. Afghanistan could please the United States only by aggressive action that would further impoverish its already poor population and undermine the government’s legitimacy.
The Taliban announced a ban on growing poppies-- the source of opium -- in Afghanistan in July 2000, saying this reflected the teachings of the Koran. Already feared by Afghans for its brutality, the Taliban achieved compliance with its poppy ban by tearing up the fields of a few early producers who violated the ban, thereby showing that the government was serious.
The result of the Taliban’s order was a dramatic reduction in Afghan opium production, which fell from 3,600 tons in 2000 to just 185 tons in 2001. This caused world opium production to fall by more than 60 percent.
This wasn’t the first time that large and rapid reductions in opium production have been achieved by massive government repression.
When the Communists took power in China in 1949, the nation was a major opium producer and suffered from what may have been the world’s worst opium consumption problem. Within two years of a police crackdown on opium production and consumption -- resulting in mass executions and imprisonments -- opium production and use had essentially disappeared in China.
The Islamic Revolution in 1979 in Iran used some of the same police-state tactics as China to eliminate the large production and consumption of opium that had prevailed under the role of the shah of Iran.
This year there may be yet another, slightly less dramatic instance of successful reduction. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is the world’s second-largest producer of opium. A rebel movement, the United Wa State Army, has control of the major poppy-growing areas and has already reduced production by three-quarters in the past six years, with a realistic promise to end production by June this year. It has accomplished this mostly by forcible relocation of some 100,000 peasant farming families who grow poppies.
But if Afghanistan’s current government resorted to the tactics of the Taliban, the Chinese Communists, Iran’s dictatorship and the rebels in Myamnar to end opium production, it would rightly be condemned by the United States and other democratic nations. This is because in each of the successful crackdowns on opium, authorities relied on methods that are simply not acceptable in a democratic nation, no matter how noble the purpose.
The success of anti-opium campaigns in more politically open settings is much more gradual. Thailand, once a major world opium producer, is the leading example. A combination of general economic development and targeted programs -- both crop substitution and law enforcement-- led Thailand to almost end its opium production over a period of more than a decade. Pakistan, also a formerly significant producer, has managed to almost entirely exit opium production over a similar period, notwithstanding a recent upturn in poppy harvests.
Going after traffickers rather than farmers, albeit politically much more acceptable, is even more difficult. Few governments, authoritarian or otherwise, have had a high degree of success in this arena. While ending poppy production, Iran and Pakistan are still major drug traffickers. The recent Thai crackdown, with the extra-judicial killing of 2,000 drug dealers in less than a year, seems to have lessened domestic drug use but does not offer a helpful model for a democracy-building Afghanistan.
Secretary Rice’s call for patience in the fight against opium production in Afghanistan shows an acceptance of the dilemma Afghanistan faces and is an encouraging indication that the U.S. government has learned from history. [br] What is the author’s attitude towards Afghanistan and U.S governments’ policy?
选项
A、Critical
B、Supportive
C、Neutral
D、Pessimistic
答案
B
解析
从最后一句话可以看出,作者认为美国和阿富汗的做法是一个积极的信号,是从历史中汲取了教训的。故可推论出其态度是比较支持的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3288103.html
相关试题推荐
[originaltext]AnofficialfromthePhilippines’Presidentialpalacesaysthe
WhenthepresidentoftheUnitedStatesisimpeached,______.A、TheHouseofRepr
[originaltext]PresidentClinton’snomineeforDefenseSecretary,WilliamPer
[originaltext]PresidentClinton’snomineeforDefenseSecretary,WilliamPer
WhichAmericanpresidentwitnessedthedisintegrationoftheSovietUnionandth
Suchjoy.Itwasthespringof1985,andPresidentReaganhadjustgivenMoth
Suchjoy.Itwasthespringof1985,andPresidentReaganhadjustgivenMoth
Suchjoy.Itwasthespringof1985,andPresidentReaganhadjustgivenMoth
[originaltext]EmbattledIndonesianPresidentAbdurrahmanWahidwarnedyest
TheU.S.Constitutionrequiresthatthepresidentshouldbea_______year-old
随机试题
WhichofthefollowingadverbscanNOTbeusedtocomplete"itis______toodif
Whenevertwoormoreunusualtraitsorsituationsarefoundinthesameplace
Spaceisadangerousplace,notonlybecauseofmeteors(流星)butalsobecauseof
体内合成核酸链的方向是()。A.3′→5′ B.5′→3′ C.3′→5′
投资者于交易日投资5万元申购某开放式基金,基金合同约定申购费率为1.2%,申购当
下列选项错误的是()。A、经营劳务派遣业务,注册资本不得少于200万元 B、经
请从所给的四个选项中,选择最合适的一个填入问号处,使之呈现一定的规律性:
生成性学习就是要求学生对所阅读或听讲的内容产生一个()。 A.新的理解B.
(2015年真题)下列属于审计业务约定书的特殊考虑的是()。A.提及注册会
布放电缆时,转弯应均匀圆滑,转弯的曲率半径应至少大于()。A.电缆直径的3倍
最新回复
(
0
)