Viagra As A Weapon Of War

When our definition of how to win a war is to put aging warlords “back in an authoritative position” by handing out Viagra in a country with one of the worst records regarding women’s rights, it is clear that our definition of winning is a loser:

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIAofficer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

For some U.S. operatives in Afghanistan, Western drugs such as Viagra were just part of a long list of enticements available for use in special cases. Two veteran officers familiar with such practices said Viagra was offered rarely, and only to older tribal officials for whom the drug would hold special appeal. While such sexual performance drugs are generally unavailable in the remote areas where the agency’s teams operated, they have been sold in some Kabul street markets since at least 2003 and were known by reputation elsewhere.

“You didn’t hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones,” said one retired operative familiar with the drug’s use in Afghanistan. Afghan tribal leaders often had four wives — the maximum number allowed by the Koran — and aging village patriarchs were easily sold on the utility of a pill that could “put them back in an authoritative position,” the official said.

Is there a line item for this in the CIA budget?  Imagine if we spent that on schools for girls and maternal health care for women in Afghanistan which has one of the worst infant mortality rates in the world.  Who knows, maybe we’d have peace.