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Gretchen Peters, the author of "Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda," believes that the Taliban can be likened to a gang like "The Sopranos." She talks about how to fight the Taliban and why we should look at the group more as organized crime than soldiers.

Three agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and seven soldiers were killed when two NATO helicopters collided in the western part of Afghanistan yesterday. One helicopter was returning from a firefight provoked by an anti-narcotics mission. We speak with Gretchen Peters, author of "Seeds of Terror," a book that traces the links between Afghanistan’s drug trade and the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.

The U.S. government is deploying dozens of Drug Enforcement Administration agents to Afghanistan in a new kind of anti-drug surge. It's the biggest expansion in DEA history, but will it help? Joining The Takeaway is Gretchen Peters, former Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent for ABC and author of Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Yesterday almost 4,000 Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops began a major operation into the Helmand province in Southern Afghanistan, the epicenter of the opium producing that is a major source of funding for the Taliban. Joining The Takeaway to talk about the mission in Helmand is Gretchen Peters, former Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent for ABC and author of Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda. Also joining us after three tours in Afghanistan with British forces is Gordon Mackenzie, a military analyst.

Despite the United States best efforts in the "War on Drugs" and the "War on Terror", Islamic fundamentalist groups in Afghanistan still rake in half a billion dollars a year in the opium trade. Gretchen Peters has covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for over a decade. Her book is called

Last week, hundreds of women marched in the streets of Afghanistan to condemn a new law that critics say legalizes marital rape. Outrage from both Afghan women and the international community over the passing of this law has been well-documented and President Karzai is reconsidering signing the law. But what does this indicate about the push to democratize Afghanistan? Are we seeing growing signs that some Afghan women have finally had enough of restrictive laws? The Takeaway talks to Gretchen Peters, former Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent for ABC news and author of the forthcoming book, Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Our partners at the New York Times have footage of the protests in Kabul: