The real reason why U.S. invaded Afghanistan

It has been over two years and it occurred to me why we invaded Afghanistan. The reason is that the United States wants control of the opium trade.

Now, to get to this reason I had to understand three facets of our American way of thinking. First, we are a country founded by businesspersons, and when we settled into Jamestown in 1607, we were all about trade. Second, while settling in Jamestown, the primary cash crop to the entire world was tobacco, a quick means of reaching a brief buzz for a few minutes. Third, going along with the second reason, Americans particularly want to get high. We abuse the most mind-altering substances out of any other countries.

After all, we’re the country that came up with the concept of binge drinking. Americans are also getting toasted on prescription painkillers, which come from opium.

Opium is in all sorts of painkillers such as aspirin and Vicodin. In addition, opium is the most abused prescription drug in America. Therefore, America decided to combat its mind-boggling war on drugs by invading a feeble country that has a huge supply of profit-generating opium.

Opium is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry. Before the attack on Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden was making most of the profits. However, when he took his trillions of dollars – along with his previous CIA training (see the war against the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s) – the United States wanted to drive him out of Afghanistan so that it can become a profiteer from the opium trade.

Also, you need to consider that China has a large portion of opium on the west side of its country. The United States wants to monopolize the billion-dollar opium industry and cripple the already-fragile economy of China.

What I just said has to be true. If greedy businesspersons founded America, then our culture wants opium so that we put everyone out of commission. It’s not that we dislike competition from other countries. After all, this country thrives on competition. It’s just that we should always be one step ahead of potential superpower countries such as China, Mexico, Russia, France and Australia.

Seth Bleicher can be contacted at s.bleicher@umiami.edu.