$1 Trillion worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan

[Wingates_Hellsing]

It's not 'we found it, pay us' at all. It's 'we found it, may we dig it up and sell it?' this would be true regardless of who found the deposits.

Moreover, if I put the work and/or money into discovering something like those diamonds, I sure as hell would want some sort of compensation at the very least. Information, like any other commodity, can be the subject of charity (given away at own expense). However, lack of charity does not evil make. Furthermore, in both instances the landowner is still profiting where they wouldn't have before. In neither, however, is the land owner robbed at gunpoint against their will. To profit from one's own work (in this case, discovering the goods to be harvested) is perfectly fair, and while the decision posed to the land owners in question might be one sided (choosing nothing over something is pretty stupid) they aren't forced to do anything.

[Fryk]

I'm just curious how much, if any, Afghanistan will get out of this.

I'm curious how much, if any the Afghani people will get out of this.

[Red Panda]

Even if all the construction, mining, and gaurding is done by Americans, which is unlikely, the Afgan people will still benefit from the fact that such a large operation is going on. The workers aren't going to end their shifts and hop on a plane back to America. They are going to be living their. They will want to buy things, they will want entertainment, they will require services. Anybody that lives near a military base can tell you how much it benefits the local community even if it isn't directly earning money for them. The fact that it is their and their are a large amount of poeple who go elsewhere for what they want or need is very beneficial.

Afganistan at the moment doesn't have the means to start a large scale mining operation, train all the workers, and guard the operation. They are best off letting a foreign country take on all the costs while they earn the tax money and the side benefits. Down the rode as the citizens are able to better educate themselves you better believe they will be getting hired in those mines because they will be working for less. In the long run Afganistan will benefit greatly from letting America mine their nation.

[jackfaire]

Anybody that lives near a military base can tell you how much it benefits the local community even if it isn't directly earning money for them.

This is very true in fact some of those cities that exist around a military base become ghost towns during mass deployments.

[infinitemonkies]

Scott Adams wrote an interesting short piece on this a couple days ago, heres the link

Quick excerpt:

Strategy-wise, these valuable deposits in Afghanistan are a major problem for U.S. defense. It makes leaving impossible and staying even harder. Any sense of military legitimacy will soon be smothered by talk of economics. If there's one argument that you can be sure will never fly with the American voting public, it goes like this: "Those vast mineral deposits are a total coincidence."

[jackfaire]

Gibbs doesn't believe in coincidences

[jackfaire]

http://amultiverse.com/2010/06/29/th...+Multiverse%29

Wow that isn't a thinly veiled social commentary at all.