As Shukria Dellawar and Antonioa Juhasz Point Out - Violence Never Solved Anything!!

In fact, when I served as Advisory Team Leader north of Kontum, I told the soldiers under my command, that I would use violence only as a last resort: In Afghanistan, violence escalates daily with the approach of the 10-year anniversary of the US invasion on October 7. At the same time, a little noted energy agenda is moving rapidly forward that may not only deny Afghans the much needed economic benefits their energy resources could provide, but may also exacerbate insecurity and instability, ensuring a prolonged US and foreign military presence. It is an agenda remarkably similar to one well underway in Iraq. Eight years of war in Iraq succeeded in transforming the country's oil industry from a nationalized model, largely closed to American oil companies, into an all but privatized industry open to foreign oil companies. Exxon-Mobile and BP, among other companies, are today producing oil in Iraq for the first time in over 30 years under some of the most corporate-friendly terms in the world. However, opposition from Kurdish leaders, Iraqi unions, civil society organizations, and some parliamentarians, who worry that the terms would grant undue benefit to foreign companies, to the detriment of Iraq's economic stability and security, has kept the Iraqi Oil and Gas Law, written to lock in access, from passage. Afghanistan's known hydrocarbons are primarily located in the North. Its approximately 1.6 billion barrels of crude oil, and 15.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas, are minor in comparison to the the resources of its neighbors: (Iraq's oil reserves are estimated at 115 billion barrels), but are comparable to those in nations such as Chad and Equatorial Guinea, and may be considerably larger, since there has been no significant exploration in decades.