Resurgent Afghanistan drug trade threatening US goals, Pentagon warns --- The drug problem in Afghanistan is growing, and it threatens to undermine the US war effort of building a stable country there, top Pentagon officials say in some of the sharpest warnings they have ever issued on the topic. -- The lucrative opium trade has been surging in recent years, even as less of the crop is being seized, officials and recent reports say, and with the US military presence in the country winding down, prospects for keeping the illicit business in check are dwindling. -- Just how to take on Afghanistan’s opium poppy trade, however, has long been a tricky proposition for the US military. -- Destroy the crops – a sizable source of income for poor farmers in a desperately poor country – and risk the ire of Afghan locals, who may turn to violence to protect their livelihood. -- But the poppy trade, which supplies the world’s heroin dealers, is also an important source of income for the Taliban – an estimated one quarter of their $400 million annual budget comes from the crops, according to the Department of Defense. -- The drug also contributes to corruption within the Afghan government, which in turns alienates the population, making them more open to ideas of alternate sources of government like the Taliban is offering. - More, Anna Mulrine, Staff writer, csmonitor, at: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2014/0120/Resurgent-Afghanistan-drug-trade-threatening-US-goals-Pentagon-warns