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Bush''s genius: $1 Trillion in minerals found in Afghanistan

G

gturner

Admiral
New York Times link

I knew we didn't invade Afghanistan to corner the world market on lapis lazuli!

Afghanistan is set to become the Saudi Arabia of lithium - plus it has huge deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, and gold.

The value of the reserves are a hundred times larger than the country's current GDP.

Hrmm... Or maybe this was Cheney's genius.
 
It didn't have any known natural resources until now - except for the lapis lazuli.

The country was so poor that even poor starving countries made fun of it. :(

People living in grass huts laughed at Afghanistan's mud houses. :(

But because Bush and Cheney invaded, it's going to be rich! :)

$1 Trillion, which is just what's known so far, is about $50,000 per citizen of Afghanistan. :)

Now other resource-poor countries are going to be lining up to get invaded by the US. :)
 
Is this somehow funny to you?

Is this funny to an Afghani who can either "choose" (at gunpoint) to fight for the Taliban, get shot at by tribal militia or be bombed by western JDAMs?

An Afghani won't see shit of these mineral riches.. as usual only a selected few will profit from it, mostly likely the government and a few already wealthy ones who'll sell the mining rights to the highest bidder and pay pennies to the poor people who do the actual hard work.

If this were TNZ i'd have some other choice remarks too :mad:
 
These minerals are on Afghan soil, thus they belong to the people of Afghanistan:)
 
gturner said:
New York Times link

I knew we didn't invade Afghanistan to corner the world market on lapis lazuli!

Afghanistan is set to become the Saudi Arabia of lithium - plus it has huge deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, and gold.

The value of the reserves are a hundred times larger than the country's current GDP.

Hrmm... Or maybe this was Cheney's genius.
Click to expand...
None of it is ours. Hell those dimwits didn't even get Iraqi oil to pay for the war and you are thinking we could get some of this. :guffaw:
 
gturner said:
New York Times link

I knew we didn't invade Afghanistan to corner the world market on lapis lazuli!

Afghanistan is set to become the Saudi Arabia of lithium - plus it has huge deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, and gold.

The value of the reserves are a hundred times larger than the country's current GDP.

Hrmm... Or maybe this was Cheney's genius.
Click to expand...

I'm sure when the average Afghani is able to take advantage of this windfall to build a bomb shelter they'll be just as happy as you are.

Is it cool that they've got some natural resources to deal with? Sure. But I bet you won't find a single one of them wiping their brow going "Whew! A decade of our country being fucked up was totally worth it!"
 
gturner said:
New York Times link

I knew we didn't invade Afghanistan to corner the world market on lapis lazuli!

Afghanistan is set to become the Saudi Arabia of lithium - plus it has huge deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, and gold.

The value of the reserves are a hundred times larger than the country's current GDP.

Hrmm... Or maybe this was Cheney's genius.
Click to expand...

This is like saying Alexander Fleming set out to discover penicillin.
 
Nice that they found something to give them some sort of economy, other than drugs. Can't really say any of it is because of Bush, Cheney, Obama, or much of anyone else, though, that's cheap politics at best, and poor logic.

Hope we can get enough advisors in there to help this go positive, rather than funding more fighting. Given the right circumstances, and some housecleaning in government, could be a nice boost to finally build a real infastructure in that country, get some investment in there, and get things going. Like oil in the middle east, this could be the shot in the arm that turns it into a legitimate conern rather than 3rd world hellhole...
 
This is good news. Who knows. 50 years from now Afghanistan could be similar to current rich middle east countries with oil.

I'm not holding out hope but I think it's fair to say that Afghanistan will improve in some form from all of this. Certainly it isn't going to make things worse.
 
Yes Bush was such a genius and knew about the minerals in Afghanistan that he sent most of the troops to Iraq.

Yep the man's as a big a genius as Steven Hawking.
 
Well, genius or not, if the people can get their act together and some good mining companies can get in there, Afghanistan will improve its standing in a few years. And another positive... The mountains will no longer be a safe haven for the Taliban or Al Qaeda. Dynamite or whatever mining companies use now will render them unsafe!
 
Peach Wookiee said:
Well, genius or not, if the people can get their act together and some good mining companies can get in there, Afghanistan will improve its standing in a few years. And another positive... The mountains will no longer be a safe haven for the Taliban or Al Qaeda. Dynamite or whatever mining companies use now will render them unsafe!
Click to expand...

And in the long term a few people will get rich, the western mining companies will make a ton of money and the cycle will continue.

Afghanistan will simply become the Nigeria of the region.
 
gturner said:
New York Times link

I knew we didn't invade Afghanistan to corner the world market on lapis lazuli!

Afghanistan is set to become the Saudi Arabia of lithium - plus it has huge deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, and gold.

The value of the reserves are a hundred times larger than the country's current GDP.

Hrmm... Or maybe this was Cheney's genius.
Click to expand...

Afghanistan isn't the one we needed a retroactive excuse for.
 
Marc said:
And in the long term a few people will get rich, the western mining companies will make a ton of money and the cycle will continue.

Afghanistan will simply become the Nigeria of the region.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but a lot of the locals will get jobs out of it, which is a good thing.
 
Lindley said:
Marc said:
And in the long term a few people will get rich, the western mining companies will make a ton of money and the cycle will continue.

Afghanistan will simply become the Nigeria of the region.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but a lot of the locals will get jobs out of it, which is a good thing.
Click to expand...


I'll believe it when I see it because from what I've read of Nigeria doesn't fill me with confidence.
 
Mining produces far more jobs than oil, since mining tends to be labor intensive (miners, truck drivers, loaders, etc) whereas oil is capital intensive (piping, rigs, etc).

The big questions have yet to be answered.

The Afghanistanis have no mining experience, other than setting IED's, and the Taliban couldn't manage a shoe store, much less a mine.

Will these finds undermine or enhance the power of the tribal warlords?

Will Afghanistan recognize the mineral rights of their farmers and villagers or will the ownership be expropriated by tribal chieftans, warlords, or the government?

Will Afghanistan hire Dick Cheney as an advisor?
 
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