May 6, 2009 11:00AM 

# Counterinsurgency or Counternarcotics? 

By [David Rittgers](https://www.cato.org/people/david-rittgers) 

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This clip from NBC Nightly News shows a DEA raid in Afghanistan:

As I have [said before](https://www.cato.org/2008/11/06/dea-in-afghanistan/), the quickest way to create an insurgent is to burn a man’s livelihood. This may be a competent counternarcotics tactic, but it is an epic failure as a counterinsurgency strategy. We can fight a war against the Taliban or we can fight the war on drugs, but we can’t do both in the same place at the same time.

Related thoughts from Doug Bandow [here](https://www.cato.org/2009/04/29/the-war-in-afghanistan-is-about-to-turn-nastier/).

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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