Those crazy Afghanis! Just when you thought they couldn’t do better, they come right back and make a fool out of you. Sheesh.

The Associated Press reports that the American general currently commanding NATO forces in that country is expecting another year of “explosive growth” in Afghanistan’s opium production.

2006 was an all-time record. That record fell when the 2007 crop jumped 37%.

General Dan McNeil, said NATO’s leaders in Brussels have made clear that he is to use the current ISAF mandate to its fullest extent “to help the people of Afghanistan rid themselves of this scourge, and that will be our intent.” I’m not sure just how much help the poppy growers are looking for.

“When Afghan and NATO forces last month recaptured the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, the world’s largest poppy growing region they discovered dozens of heroin labs and stockpiles of drugs worth $500 million in street value, according to U.S. Ambassador William Wood.

McNeill estimated that insurgents get 20 per cent to 40 per cent of their income from drugs, but he said some UN officials have told him the number could be as high as 60 per cent. “