Re: Afghan Mineral Stock Pile
Soooooo...I'm a little confused as to how this is "news." About 2 years ago, I took a class with a geologist specializing in Afghanistan (he spend pretty much the 70's there), and he went over the mineral wealth of Afghanistan. This is NOT a new revelation. Even the Afghans themselves know that they have loads of mineral wealth. There are vast oil and gas fields in the north, iron, the biggest known copper deposit in the world (gold usually comes with copper), emeralds that are every bit as good as Columbian emeralds, the biggest deposits of lapis lazuli in the world, uranium, coal, etc. etc. etc.
And yet, the little mining ventures that exist are almost all illegal family businesses, and most of the "taxes" collected off of the truck shipments are pocketed by the company (yes I said company) that has PURCHASED the rights to collect the tax for the government.
There will be no huge influx of cash to this country. The people will continue to chase goats and scratch at the ground as they have for thousands of years. To have large, modern mines, and factories to make the raw materials useful, you have to have money. And right now, all the money in Afghanistan is leaving the country, across the ocean to already fat accounts in Dubai, UAE, Qatar.
No foreign company is willing to invest either, which is VERY frightening if you consider some places in the world that they DO invest! And the reason is simple...Nobody believes that the Afghan government will survive. Why drop billions of dollars worth of capital on a venture if the guy you are dealing with today won't be the guy in charge in 5 years? When the Taliban takes back control of the country, what is to stop them from asking you to kindly GTFO of their country while they nationalize YOUR factory and mines ala Venezuella?
We aren't losing to the Taliban, the government is losing to the Taliban and we just don't have the troop strength to protect all 29 million people here. You know it is sad when the TALIBAN are out governing the government....and yet we still support them. It makes me sick to my stomach to know that I've invested years of life here, and over a thousand American servicemen have given EVERYTHING....and in the end, the Taliban will win because the government that we blindly support in everything they do, won't stop stuffing their pockets long enough to help the people they say they represent. Reprehensible...