Afghanistan is a Nice Place to Live

Holy shit! Evidently Afghanistan has "impenetrable forests" of marijuana plants growing wild. And best yet, it can't be destroyed by military means. This is one of the greatest news stories I have ever seen. Those damn Canadians have all the fun. I aboot to join the military 'cause I'm sure I can help get rid of those plants.

"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices. ... And as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests."

"We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now ... that we simply couldn't burn them."

"A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those [forests] did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action," Hiller said dryly.

One soldier told him later: "Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd say 'That damn marijuana'."