Drugs, Corruption Complicate U.S. Mission in Afghanistan

  As U.S. forces prepare to leave Afghanistan, retired general Barry McCaffrey says the opium trade is making it harder to leave a stable country behind.  McCaffrey says the corrupting influence of the drug trade complicates the mission of American troops.

"So we have a rifle platoon of U.S. Marines or a Ranger company moving through an endless sea of opium poppy," McCaffrey said in an interview with KUER.  "And they say, 'Well, look, this isn't why we're here.  We're here for counter-insurgency."

McCaffrey was head of drug control policy in the George W. Bush administration.  He was in Utah to speak at Westminster College.