Kabul, Afghanistan. Most Americans and Europeans sit numb thinking that the need for troops in Afghanistan is to protect “democracy” or local people, but between Afghanistan’s opium production and rare earth minerals, you don’t need to be a smart person to understand one word, greed.
Afghanistan may be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world, valued at nearly $1 trillion, scientists say. A country nearly the size of Texas, it is loaded with minerals worth money. The US Geological Survey began inspecting what mineral resources Afghanistan had after US led forces drove the Taliban from power in the country in 2004.
The aerial surveys determined that Afghanistan may hold 60 million tons of copper, 2.2 billion tons of iron ore, 1.4 million tons of rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, and lodes of aluminum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury and lithium. For instance, the Khanneshin carbonatite deposit in Afghanistan’s Helmand province is valued at $89 billion, full as it is with rare earth elements.
By 2010, the USGS data had attracted the attention of the Department of Defense’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, which is entrusted with rebuilding Afghanistan. The task force valued Afghanistan’s mineral resources at $908 billion, while the Afghan government’s estimate is $3 trillion.
Now as America and NATO rush fresh troops to occupy Afghanistan, you do not need to be a geologist to understand it is not so much as about “saving” Afghanistan as it is about the rape of Afghanistan. All for American greed.