Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The CIA is pulling out all the stops to get Afghan warlords on our side in the fight against the Taliban, including giving them viagra.
Paying for information is nothing new for the Central Intelligence Agency, but officers have started employing unusual incentives to persuade Afghan local leaders to share intelligence about the Taliban's movements, the Post wrote, citing unnamed sources in the spy service."Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people -- whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra," one CIA operative who has worked in Afghanistan was quoted as saying.
And it seems to be working:
CIA agents have offered pocket knives and tools, toys and school equipment, travel visas, medical services including surgeries and sometimes the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra for Afghan chieftains, the paper said.The aging chieftains often have up to four wives and are open to the Viagra pill as a way to "put them back in an authoritative position," said another official.
More customary bribes such as cash and weapons can create problems, because guns fan fall into the wrong hands and a sudden influx of cash can draw too much attention, agents told the paper.
Four Viagra pills transformed the attitude of one influential 60-year-old warlord who had been wary of the United States.
"He came up to us beaming," one official told the Post.
"And after that we could do whatever we wanted in his area."
What happens when you give Viagra to a warlord? He gets taller.
Politics
Comments
Hmm... I'm curious as to how faith based politicos in the USA justify enabling warlords to have at it with multiple wives while meddling in the bedrooms of American citizens?
One thing's for sure... tis better to make love, not war.
Peace!
Posted by: Rodney | December 28, 2008 11:59 AM
Of course, no one asks if the wives want the warlord husband to have access to Viagra....
Posted by: Boudica | December 28, 2008 12:13 PM
Rodney- It's easy for them to justify it. Right now they need the warlords so they'll stay quite on these "sins". Besides, the warlords are just barbarians who have never heard of Jesus Christ so it isn't like one could expect much civility out of them, not that they aren't working on that. And they are having sex with their multiple wives, who are women.
Posted by: AL Jeremy | December 28, 2008 12:23 PM
That's easy - power. The sexual politics of the Religious Right have never, despite what they claim, been about right or wrong. It has always been about control.
Only when you accept this will you understand why they oppose birth control practices that would prevent abortion, and sex education that would prevent teen pregnancy.
Posted by: DaveL | December 28, 2008 12:32 PM
They probably should have thought of that before they chose to marry the warlord.
Posted by: Brandon | December 28, 2008 1:22 PM
Brandon, erm chose?
Posted by: Ramel | December 28, 2008 1:51 PM
Brandon, you forgot to include the [/snark] tag.
Posted by: James Hanley | December 28, 2008 4:40 PM
"What happens when you give Viagra to a warlord? He gets taller."
And hopefully pole vaults over a big cliff.
Posted by: wobert | December 28, 2008 5:20 PM
Enzyte Habib?
Posted by: W. Kevin Vicklund | December 28, 2008 7:41 PM
USA! USA! USA! USA!
:-)
Posted by: Ian Kennedy | December 29, 2008 2:17 AM
I always thought that NASA was missing the boat by not advertising Viagra on the side of it's launch vehicles.
Posted by: democommie | December 29, 2008 7:28 AM
Years ago I read an account of Roman warfare in Gaul. The assertion was that marching through the deep woods legions would sometimes have a number of Gauls drop from the trees into their formation, slash and hack with great enthusiasm and, assuming they weren't killed, running off.
The Gauls falling out of the trees were evidently naked except for a sword, tor, sandals and a vicious grin. The most frightening of these warriors were reported to sport an erection as a sign of their enthusiasm. The Romans found this to highly unsatisfactory and enormously demoralizing.
I have a problem imagining engaging in hand-to-hand combat while sporting wood. But I can imagine the visual effect was quite striking. Would make me think the opposition enjoys the old slash and hack a little too much.
Fortunately I suspect the effect of a sustained erection on your average Afghan tribesman would be to promote less combat rather than more. At least while the pill lasts. Sporting wood under fire doesn't sound like a good thing. At the very least diving to the ground becomes considerably more involved. You've got to rearrange the furniture a bit before going prone.
I wonder if the people handing them out include the warning about 'erections lasting for more than four hours'?
I do know for sure that the army, in search of non-lethal deterrents and incapacitation agents, considered a chemical agent that induced erections to be a candidate technology. No word if they actually had any such agent.
History doesn't necessarily repeat itself but it rhymes.
Posted by: Art | December 29, 2008 5:23 PM
At last, a democratic uprising.
Posted by: Jay | December 29, 2008 9:40 PM
CIA child rapers.
Posted by: eddie | December 31, 2008 1:52 AM