The fields of Marjah are bright green with poppy shoots, while the “poppy palaces” of drug lords stand out a mile. The US Marines leading Operation Moshtarak, however, insist that the drugs are not their problem.

“We haven’t declared war on opium,” the taskforce’s political adviser, John Weston, said on a recent tour. “We’re here to bring in security.”

Nato’s mandate does not include counter-narcotics operations unless there is a clear link to the insurgency. In Marjah those links are all around them. Soldiers have already seized large quantities of opium and heroin alongside bomb-making materials and weapons.

However, Nato forces know that they must tread a delicate line between enforcing the rule of law and appeasing the local people. Under the government rule that it has promised to install, opium-growing is illegal — but many tenant farmers depend on income from the crop.

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