Afghanistan will never know peace
By Thoreau
The title of this thread could have been predicted from the current social, political, and economic conditions alone. However, we one could at least hope that some day the rest of the world would get tired of their mess and leave them alone to sort things out and eventually evolve towards something better. Home-grown solutions can be very slow, but in the end they are usually more robust.
Alas, there is a new reason for the outside world to never lose interest in Afghanistan: Newly discovered mineral wealth.
Now, this mineral wealth was discovered in a study conducted by the Pentagon. Rest assured that the Pentagon was NOT doing this as part of any sort of imperial design or to advance any narrow commercial interest. Any insinuation that the armed forces are doing anything other than defending freedom is of course absurd. Pay no attention to America-haters who suggest that the armed forces are sent abroad as part of a racket rather than for the defense of freedom.
For my part, I would be content to leave Afghanistan alone and say that if somebody there somehow finds himself in control of minerals and manages to dig them out of the ground, we are willing to pay cash on delivery. We are NOT, however, willing to do our own pick-up or provide armed escorts for those who do the pick-up or the mining. The terms are cash on delivery.
Some will say that it is ruthlessly amoral to not do anything to ensure that the extraction is done by “good guys” rather than “bad guys” but I say that going in with force to ensure that the mining is done by (and profits are received by) some particular government, company, warlord, or whoever is by far a greater evil in practice than simply paying cash on delivery to whoever manages to show up with the minerals. I mean, we buy oil from Hugo Chavez and the House of Saud. We can buy some lithium batteries from an Afghan warlord. Especially since, in the end, even if we intervene and prop up some particular government that Afghan government will inevitably have ties to warlords.
So, cash on delivery for lithium. Or, if you decide that the guys delivering it are too immoral, you can boycott them. Either way, my terms are no military intervention for lithium. Period.
[Insert joke about isolationist libertarians needing lithium pills here.]
Comment by Rojo —
June 14, 2010 @ 3:54 am
But… but… but…. Then the Chinese will invest in it all, “which could upset the United States, given its heavy investment in the region.”
Meanwhile, the dude that murdered his parents is upset that he’s not receiving the estate, given his “heavy investment” in freeing up such capital.
Comment by wufnik —
June 14, 2010 @ 4:17 am
and, you know, if we don’t buy it from Afghanistan, then we’ll have to buy it from…Bolivia!
Comment by ajay —
June 14, 2010 @ 5:10 am
2: hmm. Clearly lithium is always found in high, mountainous countries. This is because it is a light metal and tends to rise to the top.
Time to occupy Switzerland!
Comment by mds —
June 14, 2010 @ 8:56 am
Why did the isolationist libertarian become an interventionist?
To strangle the free flow of lithium to the doctors trying to medicate him.
[Hey, you didn't say it had to be a good joke.]
Why did Ron Paul suddenly drop his opposition to undocumented immigration from Mexico?
The immigrants started smuggling silver for use in his followers’ colloidal treatments.
Comment by Dave Trowbridge —
June 14, 2010 @ 9:57 am
It’s interesting to note that this “discovery” is apparently entirely based on research conducted by Soviet geologists during the USSR’s domination of Afghanistan, and hidden by Afghani scientists until after the fall of the Taliban.
Draw your own conclusions.
Comment by Nancy Lebovitz —
June 16, 2010 @ 8:24 am
Competing with mds:
If we had a sensible foreign policy, how could we ensure the supply of raw materials for American political satirists?