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Helmand Province Mission

I will give way if I have time, but my hon. Friend has left me little time to respond. Just as no state can exist on illegal economic foundations, one cannot be built on fear. The Taliban have learnt that to their cost and are hated by the people they seek to oppress. That provides us and the legitimate Government of Afghanistan with an opportunity, and operations such as that at Musa Qaleh exploit such opportunities. The Taliban are a desperate and divided enemy who are increasingly reliant upon asymmetric tactics, suicide bombers and land mines. Vile though those tactics are, they represent disarray, and the atrocities widen the chasm between the Taliban and the Afghan people. Our mission in Afghanistan is part of an international coalition, which is NATO-led and Afghan-invited. We are supporting the Afghan Government and enabling them to spread the rule of law and democracy—Afghan democracy. We cannot simply sit back, renege on our commitments and allow Afghanistan once again to fail and return to the dark ages. To do so would allow renewed sanctuary for the terrorists who seek to attack us. Similarly, we should not allow Afghanistan to be sacrificed to an illegal and appalling opium economy. Instead, without imposing our own ideals, we must support the growth of Afghanistan into a nation of stability—a nation whose people live with confidence, freely and without fear. That process will be neither easy nor quick, as I have said to my hon. Friend. It cannot be pursued without the dedication, bravery and ingenuity of our armed forces personnel, of whom we should be very proud, and I am enormously pleased by what my hon. Friend has said about them. I shall say a few words about licit production. Even in Helmand, where production is high, as my hon. Friend has said, only a third of the arable, cultivated land is under poppy cultivation. To allow licit cultivation of heroin would risk drawing people even further into poppy cultivation, when they ought to be growing food for their own consumption or potentially for exportation in niche markets, thereby assisting their own economy. Those are the reasons why we do not support it. It is not because the Americans tell us not to, but because the Afghan Government are against it and because it does not make sense.