See also:
• Stones, Bombs and Planes: A Tale of Two Barbarisms
• We've Shot an "Amazing Number" of Innocent Afghans
• What Obama Would Have Us Ignore
Well, well, well.
The American military has finally revealed the real reason for invading Afghanistan. It has nothing to do with "terrorism" or the Taliban. Turns out "our" invasion of yet another sovereign nation was actually a preemptive mineral strike (is anyone reading this surprised???). The "War on Terror" is, in fact, a "War for Mineral Contracts." Think new millennium gold rush with more sophisticated weaponry.
Ok. The American war mongers don't come out and say that they want control of the estimated 1 trillion dollars worth of minerals "discovered" in Afghanistan by an US military team. Rather, the worry, so we are told, is that Afghanistan is too backwards to manage a ramped up mineral industry, that those pesky Taliban might fight more "fiercely" and that the sneaky Chinese might bribe more fiercely. The New York Times ain't gonna come out and say that the American military will now fight more "fiercely," but we know the deal.
Read on.
U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan
By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
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.
The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.
“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.
Read more @ NYTimes.com
tags: afghanistan, taliban, military industrial complex, military occupation, war, china
image source: active rain
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