Malthus on Afghanistan

Dear Mr. President,

I read that Afghanistan has at least $1 trillion in untapped natural resources: oil, copper, iron, cobalt, gold and other precious metals. A Pentagon memo calls Afghanistan “the Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Lithium! Just what we need for batteries to power our electric/hybrid cars, our computers, our electronic games. Imagine! For years we were told that Afghanistan was one of the poorest countries on the planet and suddenly, Presto! they’ve got scarce natural resources up the kazoo. The problem is, we’re not first in line for their goodies in spite of our ten year trillion dollar investment. According to a petulant Stanford professor, other “predator” nations—China and India—paid the necessary bribes to Karzai and his cronies to guarantee first plunder rights. While U.S. Marines break down doors and Predator drones rain Hellfire missiles on “militants,” the Chinese signed a deal to start pumping 5,000 barrels of oil a day and spent $3.5 billion to develop a copper mine. India, meanwhile, is mining iron ore and building a pipeline across Afghanistan to route natural gas from Turkmenistan to their country. How unfair, the professor says. After all, the U.S. is fighting and dying to “secure” Afghanistan but our corporations are restricted by law from paying bribes. Well, Mr. President, I’m sure Capitalist America under either you or Mitt will figure out a way around that. I always suspected we were over there because Unocal wanted the natural gas pipeline concession but apparently India beat us out on that one. However, Afghanistan has other stuff we need and all we have to do is keep the “others” who didn’t fight and die there from cutting in line and cutting us out. But tell me again, Mr. President, what we got for all that misery and all those body bags. Do we have any deals for their lithium or copper or cobalt or any of those other precious resources? Does Malthus once again explain U.S. foreign policy? That it’s all about the resources, stupid? Tell me again about your “smart” war and why you surged into Afghanistan. To defeat the Taliban? To make the world safe for Capitalism? Why did we shovel billions of U.S. dollars into the pockets of Karzai and Company, one of one of the world’s most corrupt governments? On second thought, that’s not much different than shoveling billions of U.S. dollars into the pockets of Wall Street Banksters. Except that didn’t require Marines and Predator drones to subdue the populace. At least, not yet.