We went to war for oil in Iraq.

Dick Cheney said so….

Though hailed as heroes upon marching into Baghdad, we squandered our good will in our grab for the oil rights. Iraqi’s sat up and said, “wait a minute, this is our oil”…

Americans changed presidents and Iraqi’s had the last laugh….

Not a single U.S. company secured a deal in the auction of contracts that will shape the Iraqi oil industry for the next couple of decades. Two of the most lucrative of the multi-billion-dollar oil contracts went to two countries which bitterly opposed the U.S. invasion — Russia and China — while even Total Oil of France, which led the charge to deny international approval for the war at the U.N. Security Council in 2003, won a bigger stake than the Americans in the most recent auction.

Blew that one.

Cheney was the person responsible.

What the fuck are we in Afghanstan for… Poppies?

Actually no.

Extensive research by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Afghan Geological Survey, and the Department of Defense has yielded volumes of information about areas of high mineral potential in Afghanistan, including rare earth elements, gold, iron, and copper.

Rare earth elements… know about them?

Currently China has a monopoly on rare earth elements. These materials at the bottom of the periodic tables are the responsible for almost all electronics being made today. They are the reason electronic packages have gotten so much smaller this last decade. Today’s phone carries more data as a large stand-alone did in 2000….

“The mineral resources in Afghanistan have the potential to completely transform the nation’s economy,” — said Regina Dubey, DOD Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO).

In total, the USGS studied 24 formations, the most prominent being the giant copper and cobalt deposits near Kabul, the iron-rich areas in central Afghanistan, the copper and gold resources in southeastern Afghanistan, and rare-earth element deposits in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. Many other precious and base metal deposits as well as industrial mineral deposits also are highlighted in the newly released reports.

To see maps of individual deposits, go here….

Quickly said, this is about as good as finding gold on the moon, a correlation with which many of our servicemen will identify.

We can rest assured that under the competent Democratic leadership of Obama and Clinton, these minerals WILL remain the property of Afghans, and therefore, will not be subject to the same claims of imperial conquest which were corroborated in Iraq.

It is correct to say, this is no Vietnam. America’s investment interest in Afghanistan has surpassed the dollar investment we have already sown. WE have to make sure we exit in such a way that they choose to show us the good will as did the Japanese, Germans, Chinese and South Koreans… We should take care not to piss them off as Dick Cheney was so good at doing to his ilk.

Perhaps a good diplomatic session is in order, with the punch line being:… you can choose your future and you have two options: work with us as did South Korea, or… fight against us… and remain impoverished as their neighbor to the north….