The serious question is did the knowledge of these massive mineral deposits affect President Obama’s decision to increase troop levels and widen the scale of operations in Afghanistan? Are Canada, the UK and other NATO countries aware of the USGS report?
Has securing this mineral bonanza become the real US/NATO mission in the region?
I’m guessing Russia and China might be a teeny bit interested in the mineral finds too.
And why did we just learn about this now?
Great cartoon – though not its intent, it sums a point I’ve tried to make this morning: have we so recently forgotten why they call it The Graveyard of Empires? Every empire that has tried, and the toon does an excellent representation, has within a generation died.
As to the ‘find’ itself, I don’t believe it. Not that it isn’t scientifically possible – that’s pretty much the world’s largest unexplored mountain wilderness – but that it’s just too convenient. Throw the dog a bone, bubba, and Kill Baby Kill! What this is is Our Corporate Government flailing at straws to justify ‘our’ ongoing presence, and it’s moot: it’ll take a generation to develop the infrastructure to capitalyze the ‘find’… and we don’t have a generation.
If there ever was a better example of Corporate ‘Leftism” I can’t think of it – even the so-called mainstream progressives are buying this bullshit hook, line and sinker.
Hmm, good point. Indeed, how odd no one noticed until now…