Afghan war for oil and gas

This video from the USA is called The Oil Factor – Why are we in Afghanistan? O-I-L.

From the Post Chronicle in the USA:

Published: Mar 16, 2009

Afghanistan Holds Mineral Treasure: Minister

by Sayed Salahuddin

Afghanistan sits on one of the largest mineral deposits in the region, the country’s mines minister said, urging foreign firms to invest in oil, gas and iron ore sectors.

A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) had shown that the war-torn nation may hold far higher amounts of minerals than previously thought, Mohammad Ibrahim Adel said.

Somehow, I don’t think those US American geologists went to Afghanistan just to increase knowledge in the field of earth sciences.

“In the field of minerals, Afghanistan is the richest country in the region, much more, hundreds of times more. Except for diamond, you have all the other minerals that you find in nature, in Afghanistan,” Adel told Reuters in an interview late on Sunday.

Based on the USGS survey, he said, Afghanistan’s north is estimated to hold between 600 to 700 billion cubic meters of natural gas and the country has some 25 million tonnes of oil in four basins.

“We are a people who don’t have money, food or clothes. But we are sleeping on gold,” he said. The country’s iron deposits were estimated at between five to six billion tonnes, he added.

Adel will travel next week to Dubai, Britain, the United States and Singapore to drum up foreign interest in the country’s oil, gas and iron ore sectors.

Mr Adel forgot to add that, as long as Afghanistan will be an occupied country, the billions of dollars to be made out of the mineral riches of Afghanistan, will go to foreign corporations. To the three-piece suited Enron kind of guys; Halliburton kind of guys, like Dick Cheney; Bernie Madoff kind of guys; Allen Stanford kind of guys. The kind of guys who made the present world economic crisis, which is hurting the Afghan people. If that happens, the Afghan people will remain “a people who don’t have money, food or clothes”. Maybe a few elite Afghans like Mr Adel will get a few crumbs off the neo-colonialists’ table, and will get resented for that.

Of course, the war is not just about oil, gas, etc. in Afghanistan itself. It is about transporting gas etc. from the north through Afghanistan as well.

The Post Chronicle is conservative. Remember the conservative hysteria whenever anyone suggested that George W. Bush’s wars might be about something else than “bringing democracy” as the propaganda said?