Michel Chossudovsky: Afghanistan's Vast Reserves of Minerals!

The War is Worth Waging, Afghanistan,'s vast reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas. US and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan eleven years ago, yet Afghanistan is defined as a state sponsor of terrorism. The war in Afghanistan continues to be heralded as a war of retribution in response to the 9/11 attacks. This article, first published in June 2010, points to the "real economic reasons" why US NATO forces invaded Afghanistan eleven years ago. The legal argument used by Washington and NATO to invade and occupy Afghanistan under "the doctrine of collective security" was that the September 11 2001 attacks constituted an undeclared armed attack from abroad by an unnamed foreign power: The 2001 bombing and invasion of Afghanistan has been presented to world public opinion as a just war, a war directed against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a war to eliminate "Islamic terrorism" and instate Western style democracy. The economic dimensions of the "Global War on Terrorism" are rarely mentioned. The post 9/11 counter terrorism campaign has served to obfuscate the real objectives of the US NATO war. The war on Afghanistan is part of a profit driven agenda: a war of economic conquest and plunder, "a resource war". While Afghanistan is acknowledged as a strategic hub in Central Asia, bordering on the former Soviet Union, China and Iran, at the crossroads of pipeline routes and major oil and gas reserves, its huge mineral wealth as well as its untapped natural gas reserves have remained, until June 2010, totally unknown to the American public. According to a joint report by the Pentagon, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and USAID, Afghanistan is now said to possess "previously unknown" and untapped mineral reserves, estimated authoritatively by the New York Times, to be on the order of one trillion dollars. The previously unknown deposits, including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium, are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe!!!