Russia says ISIS defeated in Syria.....Really?

Afghanistan has been in turmoil since the mid 1970s when the Afghan communists overthrew the monarchy.

That's why literacy has absolutely crashed.

 

The social programs in Libya were put in place by King Idris not Gaddafi and they do have a tiny population who ALL live along the coastline. They import 90% of their food.

 

I see no arguments here. You are trying to say that Gaddafi is bad. Was bad. Well. A developed nation imports food. An agrarian nation eats what everyone farms. The people in the US live mostly in cities not that far from the coastline, eastern coastline to be more exact. So what? King Idris really started the reforms which were performed and maintained by Gaddafi. So what?

 

Libya has significant natural resources. Oil for example. Fisheries.
Afghanistan has farmable valleys cut off from each other by mountain ranges.

Afghanistan has civilisation, but not a very developed one. Never has, never will.

 

Afghanistan is rich in natural resources.. Oil, gas, rare earth ores, uranium...... The list is pretty long.

 

Afghanistan is rich in natural resources.. Oil, gas, rare earth ores, uranium...... The list is pretty long.

 

Nonsense. Sorry.
It has dick all.

Some unexploitable minerals under it's mountain ranges perhaps.
Rather like the UK has loads of gold. Only you can't get to it (or even if you could, the cost of mining it outwieghs it's value to society).

Opium is it's primary export.

 

The Chinese have already built a railroad in northern Afghanistan.

 

The Chinese have several successful mining operations in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has over 1400 mineral fields, containing barite,chromite, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, natural gas, petroleum, precious and semi-precious stones, salt, sulfur, talc, and zinc, among many other minerals.

 

All of which amount to.... dick all.

 

Actually the worth of Afghanistan's mineral wealth is estimated at $3 trillion.

 

The list might be long. But the mining in Afghanistan was as thin as the same list. Anyway we discuss if there was anything for the USSR to put the hand on. And there obviously was nothing of value. What the USSR needed was peaceful secular state without the terrorists. What US wanted was a pain in the... head for all who borders with Afghanistan because of terrorists and opium. USSR lost. USA won. Afghanistan IMHO lost. But this is debatable of course.

This is a Chinese railroad for export of Chinese goods, Chinese project.

 

Estimated by who?
Unexploitable resources have no value at all.

1,000 tons of gold has great value. 1,000 tons of gold you can't exploit because it is buried too deep? None at all.

And is 3 trillion a lot?
How much of that 3 trillion is going to have to be spent on mining it?
How much more on building railways and roads to export it to market?

Is that 3 trillion a week, a year or in total?
At what speed can that money be realised?
Over 200 years? 2 years? 1 year? Never?

What does 3 trillion buy you?
How much sustainable infrastructure can you build with it?

Sorry, Margo, it's dick all.
It's a dirt poor country for a reason.

 

China shares a long border with Afghanistan and will still be neighbors long after the US is gone.. They have invested in mining operations, power plants and a railroad in Afghanistan.

 

Afghanistan invited 200 global companies for the development of its mines.

• Copper.
• Coal.
• Gemstones.
• Gold.
• Iron ore.
• Lithium.
• Marble.
• Petroleum and natural gas.

More items...
Mining in Afghanistan - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Afghanistan

 

Are you ready to give Afghanistan 2 trillion or even 1 trillion USD for the right to extract them all? Are those who made this estmation ready ro cover the difference between their estimation and the real outcome?

We don't have that much shortage or deficit of anything you listed here.

 

The resources are estimated and the companies are invited. Fine. I estimate my socks at 10 trillion USD and invite the 100 most important people of the planet to smell them... Does it anything to my welfare?

 

Afghanistan has been inviting people to exploit it's natural resources all my adult life.
An invite isn't worth much.

Unexploitable is unexploitable.

Hence they never get any takers.

 

Yes. Because they need the same that USSR needed in 70s. They need a peaceful secular state.

 

The more peaceful it becomes, the more of those resources will become financially viable to exploit.

But ultimately it will still add up to dick all and no amount of pipe dreaming is going to change that.
It's a peasant economy.
The climate and topography are immutable.

 

Russia doesn't share a border with Afghanistan.



Americans in the ME have known about Afghan's riches for 50 years, but markets were limited. Since 2004 there is a renewed interest in their natural resources.

 

Nope. There is the same lack of interest.

And the same old headline grabbing bollocks about Afghans imaginary wealth.
The fuel for many a good conspiracy theory.

Story crops up again every few years. But nothing changes.

 

The victor, the spoils? Trump eyes Afghanistan's elusive mineral
riches
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-minerals-idUSKCN1B102L
Aug 20, 2017 - U.S. President Donald Trump is eyeing Afghanistan's mineral wealth to help pay for a 16-year war and reconstruction efforts that have already cost $117 billion. Investors who have studied the country, one of the world's most dangerous, say that is a pipe dream.

 

Yes, that's the kind of story I was referring to.

Conspiracy theory based on a pipe dream.

Solomon's mines.

Good story, but sad reality.
Nothing there to invest in at all.

 

How Will Trump Pay for Afghanistan? President Wants to Tap Minerals ...
www.newsweek.com/trump-afghanistan-cost-war-652805
Aug 21, 2017 - How the president intends to pay for the conflicts may not work out. Afghanistan is said to be sitting on top of major deposits of gold, platinum and other valuable metals worth potentially $1 trillion, but with barely any infrastructure or mining industry in the war-torn nation, experts say thatTrump's wish to take ...