The ISAF, however, cannot try to stamp out drug production in Afghanistan without obtaining a U.N. mandate to use force for that purpose.

Another factor making it difficult for coalition troops and the ISAF to control drug production is the growth in military-political tensions. Experts in many countries think the main reason for the worsening of the situation is the inability of the international military contingent and Afghan authorities to work together to take effective measures against the drug threat. But force alone will not stop opium production because it is more profitable than any other crop. No economic solution has been found yet for this Catch-22 situation.

On Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2006, an international conference on Afghanistan met in London, co-chaired by the country under discussion, Britain and the United Nations. It set out a strategy to promote the country's peaceful development for the next five years. The agreement set a date -- the end of 2010 -- for finally establishing an Afghan national army and police force and handing them full responsibility for security in the country. The document thus marks the end of a foreign military presence in Afghanistan.

But despite all their efforts, the international community and Afghan government headed by President Hamid Karzai are not succeeding in stabilizing the country. Newly established government bodies have failed to provide security and economic development. Extremist and terrorist organizations, including the Taliban movement, have stepped up their activities. Militants continue to infiltrate Afghanistan on a massive scale, and large amounts of financial and other assistance for extremists is pouring in from Pakistan and Persian Gulf countries.

Aware that the military face-off cannot be solved by force alone, Afghanistan's leadership is trying, at NATO's suggestion, to open a dialogue with the Taliban in the hopes of winning its least repulsive leaders over to its side. The alliance is forgetting the counter-terrorist aims it proclaimed at the outset of the military intervention and is ready to make a deal with those whom only yesterday it described as sponsors of terrorists. This belies its claim that it plays a special, global role in the struggle against today's threats.

The difficulties NATO is experiencing in Afghanistan are making the alliance's leaders look to Russia to persuade Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan not to withdraw their support from the international coalition in Afghanistan.

"Russia supports the international community's efforts to normalize the situation in Afghanistan," Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his visit to Italy in March. "We have made an unprecedented move by allowing goods, including military goods, to cross our territory in order to reach the international coalition. We intend to continue giving any assistance possible to international forces helping to normalize things in Afghanistan," he said.

Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko believes the main objective is "to have a viable and effective government in Afghanistan able to manage the country's needs and help it along the path of national reconciliation."

According to Sergei Markov, head of the Institute for Political Studies in Moscow, Afghanistan could benefit from Russia's experience stabilizing the situation in Chechnya. "I think the Americans need a carbon copy of Akhmad Kadyrov in Afghanistan," he said.

Despite all its shortcomings, the international contingent in Afghanistan is doing its best to defend the world from a flood of narcotics and to save the people of Afghanistan from civil war