War Leads to Pillage

As a starting signal in any of the competitions of the recently completed Olympic Games, the Department of Defense announced in Washington what can be interpreted as a starting signal for the pillage race in the U.S.’ war against Afghanistan. The Department of Defense stated that the U.S. foreign “assistance” agencies are ready to guarantee their extensive work to locate and identify potential deposits of copper, gold, iron and other high-value minerals in Afghanistan.

On July 30, the American Forces Press Service posted on the internet that Department of Defense officials and the United States Geological Survey had gathered at Afghanistan’s U.S. Embassy to unveil what was identified as a “treasure map” of the Asian nation’s mineral resources.

At the event, the representative of the Defense Department’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations shared the podium with United States Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt, who described the new technology that has made it possible to study more than 70 percent of that country’s surface and identify potential high-value deposits of copper, gold, iron and other minerals.

Since 2009, the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations has funded work by the United States Geological Survey, including an operation with help from NASA. An airborne instrument called a hyperspectral imager mapped surface indicators of natural resources below Afghanistan’s rugged, mountainous terrain.

“The task force is a Defense Department organization charged to help spur and grow the private-sector economy in Afghanistan… and clearly, the mineral, oil and gas extractive areas are critical to that effort,” the representative explained.

An article by reporter Brandon Turbeville in the alternative digital publication Activist Post explains that such geological mapping of the “hidden” treasure — one of the main reasons for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and the death of thousands of people — is the “opening of the bidding process for private companies who are no doubt salivating as they wait in the wings for their opportunity to gobble up the natural wealth of the impoverished and war-torn nation.”

However, according to Turbeville, the term “hidden” is only a matter of perspective. “While the mineral, oil and gas reserves might have been hidden to the vast majority of the world’s population, they were anything but to the major governments that rule over them.”

The proof of this is in the Department of Defense’s press release, which states that the United States obtained data from the work of a Soviet mission that collaborated with the Afghan government on geological mapping for more than ten years in the 1960s.

With the argument that the information obtained from the Soviets is too old, the United States justifies its interests and its manifest urgency for obtaining information on geological mapping.

Turbeville provides abundant information regarding the advanced technology used by the United States Geological Survey and other American groups and agencies to find the Afghan treasure.

He explains how “hyperspectral data is used based on the fact that different minerals reflect light in different wavelength bands. Every mineral has its own signature or fingerprint.” He also clarifies that the modern hyperspectral instrument can be used in places where there is scarce or no vegetative cover. In Afghanistan, where there is almost no vegetation, this technology is applied extremely well to reveal at the surface the location of the mother lode of resources.

As for what has already been found, the United States Geological Survey declared that they “have identified somewhere between 10 and 12 world-class copper, gold, iron ore [and] rare earth deposits that no one knew were there.” (Turbeville recommends ignoring the “that no one knew were there” part of that statement.)

Arguing that a capital investment of billions of dollars will be needed by those companies joining the feast before even a pound of ore is mined, Washington, from the position of arrogant occupant, imposes conditions on the Afghan government that will signify enormous expenses to the Asian country’s economy in connection with road development, electric transmission lines and other infrastructural costs. At the same time, it demands legal, labor and fiscal regimes that are most favorable for Western investors.