Letting the Adults Take Over?

I'm not sure I should read too much into anything Donald Rumsfeld says these days, as he turned into the crazy guy on the bus a while ago. But this news report caught my attention:

Rumsfeld also called on Europe to provide a "master plan" to Afghanistan to help curb its massive drug trade, which has seen heroin flood Europe and Russia.

As far as I know, Europe's plan would still look a lot like The Senlis Council's plan:

A proposal recently put forward by The Senlis Council, an international drug policy think tank was adopted today in a resolution by the European Parliament, calling on decision-makers to consider opium licensing for the production of medicines as an option for tackling the massive drug crisis in Afghanistan.

"The resolution is very encouraging for Afghanistan," said Emmanuel Reinert, Executive Director of The Senlis Council. "By acknowledging the viability of an opium licensing system in Afghanistan, the European Parliament has not only paved the way for possible change in drug policy in that country, but could help set a precedent for a new approach to the global drug issue in general."

Later on, the MSNBC report is more specific:

On Afghanistan’s massive opium trade, Rumsfeld said the drug’s spread was a "danger" not just for Afghanistan but for Europe where opium smuggled out of this country is in wide use.

"It seems to me that it is important for them (Europe) to recognize that it is a lot cheaper ... for them to assist the Afghan government in providing master over-all plan for dealing with the counter-narcotic effort," Rumsfeld.

After the recent statistics showing the success of the Swiss program of decriminalizing heroin and the recent push in England to do the same, we might actually see a plan with a realistic chance of working. If so, we can look forward to Mark Souder and Karen Tandy demanding that we bomb Brussels.