If you thought the ongoing Afghanistan War was complicated, well the situation is about to be exacerbated after vast deposits of minerals in the country were discovered by U.S. officials in the region. The New York Times reported that the reserves could be valued at close to $1 trillion and the composition included iron, lithium, copper, gold, among others. The good: Afghanistan could potentially become a mining powerhouse giving the Afghan people access to more economic opportunities than the drug trade and/or the Taliban. The bad: New war fronts could be opened up in conflicts over land rights and ownership. The ugly: Imperialist countries such as China or the United States could profit more from mining ventures than the Afghan people, which could potentially taint the already corrupted Afghan government.
The findings were recently announced and confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey, which started its exploration over the country in 2006. The discovery forces me to raise the following question about the United States’ presence in the country: If Iraq is to oil, is Afghanistan to minerals? The Afghanistan War has been going on for well over 8 years now and it is currently America’s longest war. Whether or not the United States “wins” the war against the Taliban, the victory will always be viewed as a Pyrrhic one, due to the length and cost of the war amidst America’s growing debt. America has an opportunity to leverage its war costs by gaining some access to Afghanistan’s mineral deposits especially since it has the largest foreign military presence in the country.