Canadian General: Marijuana Forests Provide Cover for Taliban

Canadian Soldiers Stare Down Sticky Green

Ynet has a funny story on the "unexpected enemy" that Canadian troops are facing in Afghanistan: thick swathes of marijuana "forests," home to three-meter plants. General Rick Hillier is cited as saying that attempts to clear the brush have failed so far. I haven't found the report in English, so the following are translations of the citations in the Ynet article. Hillier recounts that a recent operation ended when

the wind blew the smoke [from the plants] onto our troops and influenced them in a bad way. That's when we understood that it might not be such an appropriate solution to burn the plants

The general also reported that after this incident one of the soldiers told him

Sir, when I joined the army three years ago, I did not imagined that I would find myself saying, "Ooof, this marijuana sucks."

[ADDENDUM: Thanks to Redel and Elie for sending me a link to the English version of this. You will find the original quotations there - they are slightly different from my translation of the Hebrew translation of the original. And since it's an American report, the plants measure 10 feet rather than three meters].