An article in today's New York Times declares - U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in AfghanistanNotice how it says the U.S. discovered this like it was our own country.
The article reads in part:
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.
See the entire article here and another good one here
My take is that the U.S. knew about these reserves all along but has just now gone public with it in order to deal with the growing public opposition to the war in Afghanistan. The fact that the article also appears just days before the House of Representatives votes on another $33 billion war supplemental is no coincidence.
And of course, the promise is that the profits are going to be shared "equitably" which is Corporate Code for "not equally, don't be silly, the Management always gets first choice" with all citizens of Afghanistan. Meaning, all citizens as defined by the United States Corporate Overlords.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever notice, every time they make such a promise it winds up sounding like Squealer's Speech in Animal Farm concerning the milk and apples?
There's also the small matter of the main agricultural export from Afghanistan ...
ReplyDeleteIn May 2001 the Taliban decreed that growing opium was un-Islamic. The US invaded a half year later and the crop was restored. It's obviously a coincidence just like the US in Laos a generation ago.
recommended reading: The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia by Alfred McCoy