The Friday file: Since invading Afghanistan, the US has spent about $10 billion trying to eradicate poppy production. The result: in 2013 500,000 acres of poppies, a new record amount, were planted. Worse, the poppy planting that was eliminated occurred in places least hostile to the US, pushing more of the prolific and prodigious poppy planting production to Taliban controlled areas. Opium sales are worth $100 million/year to the Taliban.