General urges tough action on Afghan drugs

By David Brunnstrom

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO's top operations commander hit out on Monday at allies resisting his call for the alliance to use more aggressive tactics against Afghan drug production.

"We still have a handful of nations...who have not listened to the argument but are countering with questions that have been answered over and over and over again," NATO Supreme Commander for Europe General John Craddock told a seminar in Brussels.

The U.S. general, who has called for tougher action against drug labs and trafficking networks, rejected the idea that his proposal would worsen the Taliban insurgency and stressed it would not involve targeting farmers' crops.

"This is not about eradication. The fear that this will make the Taliban more mad at us? Give me a break!" he said.

"What are these suicide bombs and IEDs, these terrorist attacks, all about? How can it be any worse?"

Craddock quoted U.N. estimates that the trade in drugs was bringing in about $100 million (57.6 million pounds) every year to the Taliban and said the trade also fuelled corruption in the Afghan government.

"If we can take away the wherewithal that they can build these bombs, the ability to buy the materiel and pay the bomb maker, the ability to buy the bullets and pay the trigger puller, isn't that a good thing?" he asked.

"I will not rest until I have exhausted every avenue to convince the political leaders of NATO that this is a moral requirement to protect their forces."