ABSTRACT
Poppies were the first thing that British Army Captain Leo Docherty noticed when he arrived in Afghanistan's turbulent Helmand Province in April 2006. Docherty was quick to realize that the military push into northern Helmand Province was going to run into serious trouble. Colonel Dan Thompson, US Army infantry, remembered reading Captain Docherty's account soon after Thompson's Fourth Brigade Combat Team (4BCT) was told it would be deploying to Afghanistan. As part of the increasing US presence in Afghanistan, his unit had been ordered to the southern part of Regional Command-East, a rugged area on the edge of the opium heartland. Although opium production is largely outside the 4BCT area, its impact is significant to the local economy and creates instability. While in Kabul, shortly before taking over the mission, Thompson met a civilian during his in-country orientation who was working as a contractor for the United Nations Assistance Mission-Afghanistan (UNAMA).
