Afghanistan

With 100 Dead, June is Deadliest Month for NATO Troops in Afghanistan (Slate Magazine)

“What are they dying for?” you might ask. Is it protecting our borders, preserving our liberty or bringing democracy to unenlightened barbarians, or to protect our oil supplies? If you guessed oil you are right. And now American firms can also exploit the mineral resources of Afghanistan if enough young men die to prop up a corrupt and unpopular government..

The very first order of business when Hamid Karzai was placed in office was to sign a deal allowing an oil pipeline through Afghanistan and Pakistan to tap the oil fields of the “stans” around the Caspian Sea.

“In 1998, Dick Cheney, US vice-president but then chief executive of a major oil services company, remarked: ‘I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian.’ But the oil and gas there is worthless until it is moved.. The only route which makes both political and economic sense is through Afghanistan.” [Guardian]

“On February 12, 1998, John J. Maresca, vice president-international relations for UNOCAL oil company, testified before the US House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations. Maresca provided information to Congress on Central Asia oil and gas reserves and how they might shape US foreign policy. UNOCAL's problem? As Maresca said: ‘How to get the region's vast energy resources to the markets?’ The oil reserves are in areas north of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Routes for a pipeline were proposed that would transport oil on a 42-inch pipe southward thru Afghanistan for 1040 miles to the Pakistan coast. Such a pipeline would cost about $2.5 billion and carry about 1 million barrels of oil per day.” (I am indebted to Bill Sardi http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/sardi7.html )

Yes folks, our young men and women are dying for oil and mineral resources! How many lives for a tankful of gasoline?