1. The first paragraph of a news article should answer the questions who, what, where and when. List the who, what, where and when of this news item. (NOTE: The remainder of a news article provides details on the why and/or how.)

2. What is the aim of the strikes? Be specific.

3. How will the U.S. and Afghan forces achieve their aim?

4. a) What percentage of the Taliban’s funding comes from the drug trade?
b) Why hasn’t the U.S. targeted the Taliban’s main source of funding until now?

5. a) Why isn’t the military targeting the opium fields?
b) The Washington Post wanted to know why it took three whole months to begin the operation. How did Gen. Nicholson answer the query as to why the airstrikes did not begin immediately? Be specific.

6. Commentator John P. Walters writes in Foreign Policy magazine, “By tolerating the opium market, the U.S. and Afghanistan made it impossible to achieve American interests and impossible for Afghans to build something other than a state in the grip of narcoterrorists.”

(After President Obama began the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2012), “our forces fell to only 8,000 in 2015, the stage was set for runaway opium production. By November of 2016, the government reportedly controlled only 57 percent of Afghanistan. On Aug. 21, President Donald Trump announced that U.S. policy in Afghanistan will now serve American interests without pre-established time or troop limits. ‘Conditions on the ground — not arbitrary timetables — will guide our strategy from now on…. We will fight to win,’ he said. However, he also noted: ‘Military power alone will not bring peace to Afghanistan or stop the terrorist threat arising in that country. But strategically applied force aims to create the conditions for a political process to achieve a lasting peace.’”

Not only does the opium trade fund the Taliban, it also harms people around the world (producing 93 percent of the non-prescription opiates sold around the world - although the U.S. gets most of its heroin from Mexico).

What do you think about President Trump’s new strategy for fighting the Taliban?