There’s lithium in Afghanistan! This is big news on many fronts, and I see it as mostly bad. Bad because now the big money interests have a reason to really get into Afghanistan, rather than just an area to destroy military equipment so that more can be made, and soldiers can have target practice using live civilians. Now the war will kick into high gear. Perhaps soon the war will be over. Perhaps there will be continuous carnage for the next 20 years.
The scary part is this. The lithium rich areas (which also have gold, copper and a bunch of other stuff) are right next door to China. If Halliburton wants to mine that area and expects the U.S. government to back them up in a confrontation with China, I will go on record right now as voting that we tell them to fuck off.
Somehow the phrase “an army of 10 million men from the East” is echoing in my head, and I think it probably rhymes with beast and has something to do with those prophecies about a final battle near Mt. Megiddo (Har Megiddo, hence Armageddon), which will end the human race for all time.
Now, I’m not a believer in that stuff. I didn’t panic at the millennium, I don’t believe the rapture will come on May 21st, 2011, and I suspect that the end of the Mayan calendar will not indicate the end of time, but I still don’t think it’s a good idea to fuck with the Chinese.
Any way it pans out, the local Afghanis are screwed.
Maybe not completely, though. At least the new mines will mean jobs. They may not be well paid, but it’s got to be better than what they’ve got now.
Also on the positive side, a new multi-mineralized mother lode may actually be enough to provide a bit of a jump start to the old world economy.
I don’t expect it to happen, but here’s what I’d like to see. Declare Kabul to be the capital of the world and the seat of the U.N. It gives NYC a bit of prime real estate on its upper east side, shuts up the teabaggers (well, nothing will shut them up, but it may slow them down a bit), and brings lots of money and international influences in. Tax the mines enough to make this city the pride of all the world.
Given the choice between a golden utopia and never ending gruesome class warfare, there is no doubt in my mind that the people of the world will choose the latter. But, it’s a thought.
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I agree. I wondered what was so desirable about Afganistan that the Russians would self-destruct trying to conquer it, and now the U.S. The existence of these minerals has been known for years. China is already there mining some…as they should be if anyone is…they are the neighbors. Wow. Now we have the U.S of America, the U.S. of Iraq, the U.S. of Afganistan, we are drooling over obtaining Iran. I would rejoice if I see the everyday lives and existence of the nationals improve and prosper, but I am sure the money will stay at the top and the work and struggle will fall to the bottom…this is ‘top down economics’. A rising tide does not lift all ships, it drowns those stuck in the lowlands with no boat. So much for ‘The Hunt for Osama’.