U.S. Finds Largest Lithium Reserve Ever In Afghanistan - Worth Trillions - Polidicks

I really hope this leads to some good things for the afghan people, not just more fighting over the rights to mine. Even if foreign corporations have control of the majority of the mines, it should lead to a massive increase in jobs and GDP for the country, so I'm hopeful.

This would win over the Afghan people if America played this well. But they'll play for profit. So it won't.

To everybody in this thread who thinks that we went to war with Afghanistan because of lithium, no offense, but you're fucking morons. I'm not justifying our involvement in the Middle East, but to think that it's because we were somehow able to foresee a sizable lithium deposit that would be discovered almost a decade later sounds like a conspiracy theory on par with Bush organizing 9/11.

Hopefully battery prices will drop. Five bucks for 4 AA batteries right now.

Could... could this mean that Afghanistan may NOT be a shithole when we're done with it?

[QUOTE=PariahKing;22596045]There goes the national debt.[/QUOTE] It's worth trillions, it won't make for trillions in profits though. They won't sell for cheap. And that's still assuming that an American mining company buys it, which isn't guaranteed.

-snip-

[QUOTE=PrismatexV8;22595955]Not really. With this mining stuff, the money will go to the fat cats at mining companies in America. With opium, the farmers actually see a share of the money.[/QUOTE] PERFECT. Don't forget they also get bluejeans.

[QUOTE=BCell;22596928]Hello, the Talibans and Al-Qaeda destroyed the New York Twin Towers! [B]That was the reason why they went to war with Afghanistan.[/B] [/QUOTE] Nope, not true, [URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm[/URL] [URL]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4587368/[/URL]

Best case scenario: they handle this discovery well, and the country and people of Afghanistan may benefit from this discovery and make it a better place. What will probably happen: Just like what happens in all other third-world countries that a resource is discovered in, the resource will be exploited by rich multi-national companies that don't care about the ramifications upon the Afghan people. The people will see the bottom end of profit from the find and it will create a whole new source of conflict. This is what I call Global Exploitative Capitalism. Just like unregulated capitalism in the industrial revolution except you replace rich bourgeoisie company owners, with rich first world countries, and replace masses of exploited proletariat, with the exploited third world countries. The First World Countries exploit the third world by sapping it of it's natural resources and the third world countries never benefit from it.

[QUOTE=PrismatexV8;22595801]Shame that all of the money will go to multinational corporations instead of the Afghan people.[/QUOTE] Arguably this is better than oil in that regard. Oil can be mined almost autonomously. It takes very few people to drill for oil compared to mining operations. I'm not saying anyone is going to get rich or even get a remotely decent wage, but I am saying that there will be a LOT of jobs out there for the people themselves. Whether it ultimately helps or destroys the afghan economy, I cannot say.

[QUOTE=starpluck;22597407]Nope, not true, [URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm[/URL] [URL]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4587368/[/URL][/QUOTE] we have plenty of plans, I'm sure we have a plan to invade North Korea if need be it, doesn't mean we're going to invade North Korea

worth trillions? we can ALMOST get out of debt WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

[img]http://i47.tinypic.com/5jsbw9.jpg[/img]

<snip>

[QUOTE=JDK721v2;22597595]get out [editline]02:08AM[/editline] stop posting[/QUOTE] "the previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, [b]copper[/b], cobalt, gold"

I'm pretty sure we're already in Afghanistan, for all you people saying that America is going to try to get it all instead of Afghanistan, what if corrupt government officials over there use their slice of the Lithium pie to fund the Taleban which leads to them getting better guns and worst case scenario - Nuclear capabilities. I'd rather cocaine and male hookers than that.

[QUOTE=IStanI;22597628]"the previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, [b]copper[/b], cobalt, gold"[/QUOTE] I retract my statement

[QUOTE=huntskikbut;22596046]Yah, it wasn't the fact that Al-Qaeda was based in Afghanistan. It was definitely because the US sent geologist there and they found Lithium.[/QUOTE] Even though it's dumb to think we knew about this ahead of time, Al-Qaeda was never based in Afghanistan. The Taliban were just not making an effort to stop terrorism.

Not. Good.

[QUOTE=starpluck;22597407]Nope, not true, [URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm[/URL] [URL]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4587368/[/URL][/QUOTE] Because we were just going remove Al Qaeda for the lulz since Bush was a warmonger and TOTALLY not in response to The East Africa U.S. embassy bombings and the USS Cole Bombing! :downs:

[QUOTE=Broseph_;22598350]Because we were just going remove Al Qaeda for the lulz since Bush was a warmonger and TOTALLY not in response to The East Africa U.S. embassy bombings and the USS Cole Bombing! :downs:[/QUOTE] Stop putting Bush as head of everything, the government isn't a monarchy.

Afghanistan just keeps going, and going, and going, and going...

If they had just a little balls, they'd had let them keep it, but seeing as it's america they won't.

[QUOTE=Tools;22598406]If they had just a little balls, they'd had let them keep it, but seeing as it's america they won't.[/QUOTE] I don't think balls is the right word, as previously said in this thread before, first world countries exploiting third world countries.

[QUOTE=GunFox;22597542]Arguably this is better than oil in that regard. Oil can be mined almost autonomously. It takes very few people to drill for oil compared to mining operations. I'm not saying anyone is going to get rich or even get a remotely decent wage, but I am saying that there will be a LOT of jobs out there for the people themselves. Whether it ultimately helps or destroys the afghan economy, I cannot say.[/QUOTE] Yes thank goodness diamonds are so labor intensive, they do wonders for the workers and the communities in Africa.

[QUOTE=Nyaos;22598439]Yes thank goodness diamonds are so labor intensive, they do wonders for the workers and the communities in Africa.[/QUOTE] Actually they do, if it weren't for the dictators and shit.

This makes me happy :) Finally some good news for America!

[QUOTE=Elexar;22598450]Actually they do, if it weren't for the dictators and shit.[/QUOTE] Just like diamonds, none of the income will go to the Afghans. Although the US is much better than a dictator, it's not like they're going to just give it up for free. I wonder if people in the government knew this was possible and it influenced this being the longest war in American history. [editline]02:24AM[/editline] [QUOTE=jesseluver93;22597530]Best case scenario: they handle this discovery well, and the country and people of Afghanistan may benefit from this discovery and make it a better place. What will probably happen: Just like what happens in all other third-world countries that a resource is discovered in, the resource will be exploited by rich multi-national companies that don't care about the ramifications upon the Afghan people. The people will see the bottom end of profit from the find and it will create a whole new source of conflict. This is what I call Global Exploitative Capitalism. Just like unregulated capitalism in the industrial revolution except you replace rich bourgeoisie company owners, with rich first world countries, and replace masses of exploited proletariat, with the exploited third world countries. The First World Countries exploit the third world by sapping it of it's natural resources and the third world countries never benefit from it.[/QUOTE] Sounds like someone took AP history :v:

[QUOTE=Nyaos;22598493]Just like diamonds, none of the income will go to the Afghans. Although the US is much better than a dictator, it's not like they're going to just give it up for free. I wonder if people in the government knew this was possible and it influenced this being the longest war in American history.[/QUOTE] Obviously they just spent 9 years looking for that Lithium, They had to throw people off the trail though, if they just went in and found it it would be suspicious. They waited until the time was right and enough money was wasted so they could sell the story of "accidentaly" invading a country with vast natural resources. Because the US are already in the country, it doesn't look like mass exploitation of the people will happen. The average person never really gets a share of the natural resources anyway, the government gets it and spreads it around but the people don't see a cent.