Afghanistan Strikes Rare Earth Reserves

USAF, There was probably a good reason why they gave the Chinese mining rights.

~shrug~

If the Afghanistan Government thinks it has a better chance with China than it does with the US, that's their right.

I wouldn't want anything to do with them after that, but, I never really wanted anything to do with them anyhow, so...

Well now, that does sound a bit Sour-Grapey...

I, frankly, despise the Chinese Government, and want nothing to do with it. I wouldn't shed a tear if we completely shut them out of the US market, and I don't think we should or need to associate with them.

The Cold War may be over, but that doesn't mean China isn't our enemy. It's simply an Economic War, instead of a military one...

Yeah because Tariffing the shit of China is going to go well for the United States

Probably not, but it's better than deciding they can walk all over us and completely outcompete all our industry via a stark lack of safety laws, minimum wage, and natural currency fluctuations...

China is only doing what happened in the United Kingdom in the 19th Century. Except the United Kingdom was a democracy. Wait til China is more developed.

Best case scenario is that the Russians get it.

• dodges tomato*

Let me state why: If Russia has it, the Indians (who are allies of the Russians) won't care as much since they can deal with Moscow with regards to resources, and the Chinese won't mess with them the way they would with India.

The downside of course is that memories run deep and the locals still see Russia as the Soviet Union.

If India gets it, the Chinese will do all it can to stop them, and Pakistan would willingly help. Not that its necessary since India can't easily GET to those resources.

Pakistan gets it, the Chinese get it by proxy and India would do all it could to remove them. Downside for them of course is the Afghans don't much LIKE Pakistan...

Iran on the other hand won't get it cuz of both the US and the Saudis. If they did though, I wonder how that would play out...

Or the Afghan could double down on the Taliban and mine it themselves.

Can't. They don't have the infrastructure. Otherwise the Taliban would have done it themselves awhile back, much like they're doing with poppies and gemstones (blood rubies and blood emeralds, most of them).

Then you expect foreign powers to be able to do it themselves?

Well. Never thought I'd be endorsing the Russians for something like this. They probably aren't any better than the US or China, though...

They have the expertise and the money. All that is required is the security and thats what PM Cs are for.

They're better in the sense it doesn't turn the balance of power on its head. Otherwise, no. They aren't.

We've been waiting for 40+ years for China to "naturally" evolve into a democracy. At present rate, Hell will freeze over before that happens.

Given the ravenous greed and sweeping up like that it would not surprise me if a war is started over their resource grab bullshit within the next 50 years or less. You can only do that so long before somebody else with power in the world says "Alright, that's enough."

The funny part is instead we're cribbing ideas from China on how to oppress the populace here,

^ Citation needed? I know Australia is copycatting the Great Firewall of China, but I don't know of anywhere else.

Well, people in the US are attempting to censor the internet and get outright draconian about file sharing (not that I'm anti-copyright, per se, but there is definitely a "this is too far" line and they're way past it).

I'd say the US is still slightly better than the Chinese Government. We're bad out of incompetence, rather than malice, most of the time...

Signing nuclear fuel contracts with China gives Afghanistan something they'd never be able to get from the US: The possibility of turning the whole scheme into a bidding war with India, assuming they have the smarts and diplomatic acumen to turn it into a pissing contest.

edited 19th Sep '11 5:05:00 PM by SavageHeathen

This isn't news really, the ironic part is that the rich reserves of various resources such as Lithium run a big ring around the central area of Afghanistan, right on the path of every major US Military Base in the country.

Surprised some people hadn't already heard of this, I'd heard about it several years ago during my first deployment.

Nuclear fuel contracts? For what? They don't have an electric grid over there, nevermind a reactor. Or a weapons fabrication facility either.

Uh, great. Hopefully with foreign investment in Afghanistan (and TBH I don't care too much about who specifically invests), they'll get a standard of living comparable to the rest of the Mideast instead of sub-Saharan Africa.

^ Which is one of the reasons why the US/NATO and the Afghan government (preferably WITHOUT Karzai) cannot be allowed to fail there. The Soviet Union knew about these reserves but them getting kicked out and the Taliban's bullshittery ensured those resources would never get developed otherwise.

We have a chance to give Afghans something other areas of the world rarely get, a massive mining export industry that likely elevates them from poverty. Should we fail, not only will the political ramifications be horrible, but those people will never be lifted out of poverty ever. Those resources are the key, our side is the one who can give that key to them.

I agree with Tom.

Tom@ Nice inspirational talk going on; have you been watching Gurren Laggan,lately?

Plus,yeah, Afghanistan's people really need this kinda of stuff to get them at least out of proverty.

edited 19th Sep '11 7:39:00 PM by joyflower

No, but I really should. I've just been writing some Ham-to-Ham Combat in my book lately.

/offtopic

edited 19th Sep '11 7:42:45 PM by MajorTom