Killing off Afghanistan's drug lords sounds like a nifty idea -- as good as any in the 72 years since Congress outlawed marijuana in the United States.

As presented in the New York Times on Monday, the Pentagon plans to hunt down and kill or capture 50 Afghan drug kingpins supporting the Taliban.
 
It's a very good time, in other words, for the drug lords to switch sides.

The grumbling about Afghan President Hamid Karzai has grown so loud you'd think the Obama administration has given up on him.

Indeed, you could almost hear the knees knocking in Karzai's embassy here when incoming Obama officials met privately during inauguration week with at least two Afghan politicians who would like to replace the president.

With the war going badly, criticism has grown of Karzai's seeming tolerance of endemic corruption in his government, which threatens to turn Afghanistan into a narco-state, if not grease the return of the Taliban to power.

Could his days be numbered?