Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Summer Wine]

[mmstyle]

Yeah, I just read this, too. I thought, hehehe. I wonder if the war will now end so that America and its allies can try to convince Afghanistan to be a new trading partner.

Yeah, this could really turn some things on their head.

[Summer Wine]

Well if the US and the IAAF countries can win the bidding war, this might just pay for the fighting carried out so far and guarantee the US being in for another 10 yrs.

So long as China, India and other producers buy the minerals from the US companies that go in. Yeah, not sure how it would turn out really, but if there is corruption in Afghanistan now, God help them if the 1 trillion dollar quote turns out to be a minimum guess.

Its either going to make or break Afghanistan.

The one reason used before by conspiracists was that the US invaded Afghanistan to support their idea of a oil or gas pipeline crossing the area and preventing the turkish route being chosen.

Then the turkish route was chosen anyway, as Afghanistan was not considered safe and with no real wealth, there is no real reason to stay in there.

Afghan blood isn't considered worth much, but now that Afghan blood has a price on it, well the conspiracy guys will have a field day with this. Plus, it might just be worth it for the US to stay in longer. The only real manufacturing base the US has is its defence industry and with 15 million unemployed, the US could probably afford to stay in this game if it was able to give jobs to some of them as consultants, english teachers, agricultural assistants, entertainment professionals.

Nah, just joking about all of the above.

[nautilus]

Ideally the resource will be developed in an envirnmoentally responsible way and the wealth distributed equally to the people of Afghanistan by a democratic government.



Realistically though China will bribe a select few corrupt and despotic govt. officials to extract the goods and Afghanistan will remain in poverty indefinitely. This is the model they have followed in Africa already.

Irresponsible Chinese economic development: a calamity for the world.

[Fox]

[nautilus]

[Fox]

[pkang0202]

A good friend of mine is an Afghani Ambassador to Korea.

I've known Afghanistan was EXTREMELY rich in resources through him for a while now. I'm surprised this news article broke. Most people in the know have known this for decades.

The problem with the corruption, as explained by my Ambassador friend, is that there haven't been any leaders the country. The people lost faith in the government, and only through bribes will things actually get done. He said when he was young, corruption was looked down upon. Now that he's much older, he says its just become a common thing.

The people hate the corruption because THEY are the ones that end up paying. They want it to go away, but there haven't been any contenders.

[visitorq]

A trillion dollars? Big deal. The CIA has shipped out several times that amount worth of opium since the occupation began. Our troops are there guarding the poppy fields first and foremost; minerals are a lesser priority. Forget China and the Taliban, for an endless supply of smack to sell the world, our government would do just about anything. Plus they've got the biggest guns. We aren't going anywhere.

[Summer Wine]

An interesting perspective on this issue.

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/14/say_what_afghanistan_has_1_trillion_in_untapped_mineral_resources

[Senior]

It would surprise me if plenty of people didn't know already about large mineral resources, in the area. There is probably a deeper political motive behind releasing the info.

[Summer Wine]

[sharkey]

They'll strip it clean and then pull out. Sweeeeeeett!

[nautilus]

[mises]

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/06/16/in-bitchy-outburst-risen-comfirms-lithium-story-timed-to-afghan-setbacks

^ Propaganda at work. Long live the NYT.