spice is a drug, and the war in Afghanistan is over opium, seeing %75 of the nation's revenue at one point (within the last few years) was from the drug. The Taliban declared jihad to convert the radical religious youth to their side of the drug war, taking advantage of the population. And holy war was declared against the US because we put boots on the ground, which would interfere with their drug trade. So, in line with the book, it's clearly a drug war, like in Afghanistan. (and oil was not the reason for war in Iraq, that was a rumor made to vilify the US government, and deface our attempts to fight for freedom around the globe... oil is always an issue in war for its needed to fuel the war machine, and that's why it became an issue, because Iraq had plenty of it)