Afghanistan
From RationalWiki
Afghanistan is a mountainous country cozily nestled between Iran and Pakistan.
Many empires have met with failure when trying to add this region to their roster, most recently, the Soviet Union.
It is currently under some sort of occupation by the United States and its NATO allies, who overthrew the fundamentalist Islamic ruling Taliban shortly after 9/11 gave them an excuse, sort of. Since pretty much the entire world hated the Taliban (for destroying ancient Buddhist shrines and making the women wear burlap sacks over their heads if nothing else) there was little protest over this. (Even the US's bitter enemy, Iran, supported this, and have sought to work with the US to keep the Taliban out of power.)
The good news? Poppy production is up, making for a brisk export balance with the West. Afghanistan has few trucks and fewer roads. But it has a lot of mountain footpaths. That's why poppies are an ideal crop there. It's a hardy perennial, so to speak, which doesn't need much water to grow. Farmers can have women and kids walking on goat paths hand carrying bundles of poppies to their buyers and make enough cash for the operation to be worthwhile. And the only viable solution would be for the US to simply buy the whole crop every season and destroy it.
