Betting on Mammon

BRT has talked about the REAL REASON why we remain in Afghanistan on several occasions, courtesy the excellent in-depth research the Russians did in the 1980s regarding the mineral wealth of this war ravaged country, something writ large in this map showing the end results of said research along with recent studies done by the US. Interesting to say the least.

When the United States decided to invade Afghanistan to grab Osama bin Laden—and failed, but stayed on like an unwanted guest—could it have known that the Afghans were sitting on some of the world’s greatest reserves of mineral wealth?

We’ve raised this topic before (see here)—where we noted the dubious 2010 claim, published by the New York Times, that “the vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was [recently] discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists.” Other evidence, and logic, point to the fact that everyone but the Western public knew for a long time, and before the 2001 invasion, that Afghanistan was a treasure trove.

So we were interested to see a new piece from the Times that emphasizes those riches without stressing the crucial question: Was the original impetus for the invasion really Osama—or Mammon?

It's all about the resources, right? At least it's not for naught as seen by examples of truly stupid reasons for war as seen by this History Channel post of  six of the finest conducted by us rubes on planet earth.