Senate panel seeks return of drug eradication in Afghanistan

A Senate panel challenged the Obama administration on one of its signature policies in Afghanistan on Thursday, calling for a renewal of U.S. eradication of drug crops.

The recommendation by the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control was another example of an emboldened Congress seeking to intervene on Afghan policy at a time of falling public confidence in the administration’s handling of the war.

The caucus is a congressionally chartered body that includes seven senators and a number of private experts. It said in a report that “crop eradication is a viable tool for narcotics suppression, and, as such, should be incorporated into the overall U.S. counternarcotics strategy.”

The Obama administration halted eradication efforts last year, declaring that the practice alienated poor farmers and squandered millions of dollars without appreciably curtailing the drug flow. About 90% of the world’s opium comes from Afghanistan, according to United Nations officials.

Richard C. Holbrooke, the special U.S. representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, had argued against eradication for years before joining the administration.

“We were driving people into the arms of the Taliban,” he said last year, also declaring that elimination of eradication had been “one of the most important policy shifts of the United States” since Obama took office.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chair of the caucus, called Thursday for a stepped-up effort against drugs.

“The drug trade must be met with the same robust response, the same level of resolve, as our efforts against the insurgency,” she said in a statement.

paul.richter@latimes.com