Afghanistan’s Trillion Dollar Screw Job

You know how whenever anyone wins the big lottery, about a year later you can read about how it ruined their lives? Well, now you can add Afghanistan to that list.

The last week or so folks have been all a-twitter about the report of hidden Afghan mineral riches – a cool trillion dollars worth, by some reports. Why this is news is a good question. I mean, the realization that minerals generally found in remote, mountainous places are present in Afghanistan, one of the most remote, mountainous places on earth, is not exactly a gee-whiz moment. There have been reports of the copper wealth present in Afghanistan for years. Really, the big news in this new revelation is mostly the number – one trillion dollars. That’s what’s getting the attention, and of course it’s just an estimate, which is a polite word for WAG.

So if this is a non-story, why am I writing about it? In part it’s because a few readers have asked about it, and if readers are actually curious about something, I figure I should try to scratch that itch.

But really this harkens back to a column I wrote about a year and a half ago about the Congo. The parallels between the Congo and Afghanistan are striking – physically remote, undeveloped, dirt poor, and possibly sitting on a huge pile of valuable minerals. In the Congo’s case we’ve known about them for a long time, long enough for the Congo’s neighbors to turn the Congo into a living hell. The conventional wisdom is that Afghanistan’s closest neighbors will, over the course of the next generation, probably make Afghanistan a living hell as well – even more than it already is.

Another lucky lottery winner.

Here’s a link to a New York Times article titled, appropriately enough, “The Curse of Plenty.”

About the Author: The major landmarks in Frank's historical interests range from ancient Persia through the Crimean War, World War II, and the modern U.S. Armed Forces, with a lot of stops in between. Frank is fascinated by the unusual, the overlooked, and the surprising. He is the New York Times number one best-selling author of the Desert Shield Fact Book (1991) and he is currently writing an historical novel on Alexander's conquest of Persia – from the Persian point of view.

Related Articles Violence Mounts in Kyrgyzstan Afghan Tip of the Spear Congress Cuts Civilian Aid To Afghanistan Over 90,000 Afghan War Documents Leaked Situation in Yemen

Comments Off