Star Member tenderfoot (6,016 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215737556
The US went into Afghanistan to steal all their shit and used 9/11 as an excuse.
Plain and simple.
Spare me this bullshit about fighting terrorism, caring about the rights of women or spreading Democracy.
Didn't work out. And it won't for Iran or China or Pakistan either.
Someone wasn't alive 20 years ago...
mahatmakanejeeves (37,985 posts)
1. What was there to steal in Afghanistan? NT
Nothing that isn't cheaper to get somewhere else.
Star Member tenderfoot (6,016 posts)
2. Minerals - the opium trade, etc...
eom
There is a deleated post, which, from the replies, goes something like: "THERE'S A TRILLION DOPLLARS WORTH OF RARE MINERALS AND DRUGS ANDS EVIL WHITE MEN WANTED IT!!!!!"
EX500rider (7,172 posts)
55. "Estimated 1 trillion in minerals" So?
And in 20 years how many American owned mines opened in Afghanistan? Zero you say...quite the evil plot to steal their resources...I bet we wanted to fluoridate their water supplies to pollute their "precious bodily fluids" too!
UnderThisLaw This message was self-deleted by its author.
Champp (943 posts)
35. "...somebody had to pay for 9/11..."
And it sure as Hell wasn't going to be the oily and intimate Republican Saudi MoneyBuck Besties.
Who were mostly hiding out in the backwoods of Afghanistan. We'd asked the Taliban to hand them over- and they promptly told us to go **** ourselves.
So, off we went to Afghanistan.
Star Member DFW (43,665 posts)
37. Ironically, much recent pilfering was done by the Taliban
They looted museums, and found huge caches of ancient bronze, silver and gold coins buried by the many groups of ancient Greek (Bactrian), Indian and Persian groups that traveled through there two thousand years ago. They also find groups of them uncovered when bombs explode. They have been selling these things for close to twenty years, mostly through Denmark, which never adopted Germany's restrictive "cultural protection" laws. The German laws are a joke, anyway, because they were passed as a public relations move, without ever hiring even one antiquities expert with enough knowledge to recognize that a coin dated "214 B.C." obviously wasn't.
Many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of these ancient Indian and Parthian (Persian) coins have been imported, quite legally, into the USA and sold to the public, usually through mass marketing programs (TV and magazines, I would assume). Since 99% of these coins do not constitute any kind of rarities, no one can tell a Taliban-sold coin from an identical one that somebody's grandfather bought on a trip to Afghanistan in 1960 for $3. Large, recent quantities, however, are of obvious provenance. All those "conserv'tive" people buying an old coin "from the time of Jesus" from some slick marketer with a story would probably have a fit if they knew they were supporting the Taliban. But maybe not, since they seem to find a way to rationalize all the other screwy shit they advocate.
Star Member panader0 (22,930 posts)
7. Cheney wanted an oil pipeline through Afghanistan.
The US could have just sought out Bin Laden at Torah Bora and left. But the Bush
administration needed to occupy the country for Cheney's pipe-dream.
https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/asia-archives/the-missing-link-to-the-war-in-afghanistan/
Which only begs more questions about 9/11.
A post above shows how stupid this theory is. It is pointless to transport oil at a cost twenty times that of the available sources..
EX500rider (7,172 posts)
51. Nonsense
Taking oil from where to where exactly?
The only big oil producer they border is Iran, I doubt the US wants to build them a pipeline.
rampartc (3,879 posts)
56. the pipeline was to be built by unocal (now chevron)
to take nat gas from the former ussr to india. the taliban could not guarantee the security of the pipeline so, in short order, they were removed and replaced with unocal executive karzoi.
there is also said to be a large amount of rare earth elements.
EX500rider (7,172 posts)
58. Right, the US attacked Afghanistan ...So the Indians could have natural gas...lol...you do know that Pakistan is in the way right, wouldn't it just be easier to build a pipeline thru there?
Star Member BlueGreenLady (1,840 posts)
13. If I recall, most wars in that area are over OIL..Access to oil in Iraq and Iran
The was was to gain access to oil fields in Iraq. It also made the Military Industrial Complex in the US to make Trillions of dollars over 20 years.
If anyone has a good book or resource to better answer this question, I would like to read it. Thanks
No oil in Iraq worth mentioning. Which is why Saddam attack Kuwait, really. The iranian oil is low in quality as compared to other sources... including our own supply.
Star Member tenderfoot (6,016 posts)
17. All their shit...
According to a joint study by The Pentagon and the United States Geological Survey, Afghanistan has an estimated US$1 trillion of untapped minerals. There are six lapis mines in Afghanistan, the largest being located in Badakhshan province. ... The first Afghan oil production began in late 2012.
mahatmakanejeeves (37,985 posts)
19. And just why are they untapped?
Also, what are we supposed to do with lapis?
Star Member tenderfoot (6,016 posts)
20. I'm guessing we were there to find out and get going on it.
Why else would we invest so much to be there to begin with?
MoonlitKnight (1,470 posts)
43. This was the neocon strategy
Surround Iran to pressure and possibly invade. The Saudis benefit the most in that scenario.
It ended up being a complete disaster that strengthened Pakistan while Iraq invasion strengthened Iran. Now it’s just a big mess.
Well past time to leave. Unfortunately it’s under the crappy peace deal Trump “negotiated “ that basically told the Taliban “don’t shoot at us and we will leave”.
DetlefK (15,857 posts)
42. Bullshit with a long uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Afghanistan
According to a joint study by The Pentagon and the United States Geological Survey, Afghanistan has an estimated US$1 trillion[5] of untapped minerals.
Untapped. That means, the US would first have to find the minerals, then set up mines, then get the minerals from the mines to some railway-logistics-center, then get the minerals to some seaport in either Pakistan or Iran.
And, no offense but, nobody in their right mind thinks that the US would attack Iran. Attacking Iran would make the invasion of Iraq look like a cake-walk, because Iran is bigger, has more population, has a better economy, a better military, more foreign allies, and so much money that they can afford to fund the Hezbollah-militias in Lebanon. It would be a quagmire bigger than Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam combined.
Plus, even though the country is currently culturally divided between the religiously conservative older generation and a liberal youth, attacking Iran would unite the population of Iran against a common enemy.
Seriously, what kind of drugs did you do to actually type that the US would attack China? Because China is a the biggest economic power-house of planet Earth and could ruin the US-economy with the snap of a finger by demanding that the US pay out the US-loans that China has bought. And if the US were to refuse to do that, nobody would ever ****ing again buy US credits. Goodbye US-economy, hello inflation.
Oh, and did you know that China has good diplomatic relationships with Africa? If the US attacks China, it can kiss the whole continent of Africa goodbye, in a geopolitical sense. (Russian propaganda has already started spreading anti-american talking-points in Africa. The russian media has framed the western criticism of alternative cures for COVID as a racist attack on the traditional medicines of Africa.)
And please explain why the US would attack Pakistan? Sure, rogue elements in their intelligence-community protected Osama Bin Laden, but they are one of the few islamic intelligence-services that provides the US with any information on islamic terrorists at all.
Plus, they have nukes.
Plus, Pakistan is an enemy of India, which is in a Cold War with China for dominance on the asian continent. Attacking Pakistan would be seen as an attack on the geopolitical interests of China.
