Afghanistan’s redemption discovered
A team of Pentagon specialists and geologists have discovered a large undeveloped concentration of minerals that may eventually make Afghanistan an independent mining center for the world according to the New York Times;
The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
Of course this could also set the tin-foil hat types spinning yarns about the evil Bush Administration sensing these deposits before they invaded Afghanistan. Gordon Duff comes to mind.
But, since this is the United States we’re talking about, for now the world is talking about how this can benefit Afghanistan and not how we can remain there longer than we need to destroy the Taliban. It can also work in other ways to give the Taliban more reason to fight for the control of resources. For now, I’m just glad that this can give the Afghans some light at the end of their millenniums-long tunnel.
Category: Terror War
It would be nice to see them switch from poppies to industrial pursuits for their income.
It would also be nice to find a way to pay them for legiotimate uses of the poppies since poppies for medicinal opiates are in short supply. Just sayin’.
Good idea HM2.
It sounds good on the surface, but wouldn’t Afghanistan just suffer exploitation? Wouldn’t the Taliban attempt to either control or destroy any mining operations that were set up?
From a geopolitical standpoint I expect Russia and China will become overt active players while the US dithers over ‘exploitation’. The Afghans will mostly bit players for several generations.
Think of how the discovery of mid-eastern oil played out.
Of course the Taliban, et al, will have roles, unless they can be bought off.
I’m thinking the creation of all those new jobs will put a kibosh on the poppy industry and most likely weaken the Taliban. It will be outside corporations that do the developement and I would guess they would pay off the Tali’s. You never know…keeping my fingers crossed that this works out for the good…
I think it will eventually lead to diminishing of the poppy trade, but only after significant imporvement is made to the infrastructure. I believe it was general McCrystal who said “where the road ends the Taliban begins.”
Until there are roads and methoids of transportation there will not be many Afghans working the mines.
Wasn’t there a story a month or so back that said China had won a huge multi-year contract for copper or lithium or some other mineral/chemical. I believe it also said that we were shut out of bidding because we didn’t want to be perceived as exploiting the Afghani’s. If it is true it sure says a lot about the current administration
HM2
I’m guessing the roads to the mines will be built post-haste and towns will spring up close to the mines as well…I could be wrong, just taking a guess, but history bears this out more than a few times…
I would not be surprised for these 7th century goat humpers to claim that the minerals belong to ALLAH and that to disturb them will upset him and ol’ Moe. They seem to shun any common sense solutions to their backwardness.
How is this going to work, now? The Chinese come in and open a mine; who provides the security? Us? The Chinese? The Taliban? The Afghan Army? Isn’t it going to get just a little wierd with us and the Taliban shooting at each other, and the Chinese somewhere in the middle, trying to run a business???
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