The real reason we're in Afganistan

[Vicky]

Trillion dollars worth of minerals in Afganistan soil

What a coincidence!

[skaterboy]

What, you have a problem with the Afgans exploiting their natural resources?
I would also bet the house and car on any central African country having a lot more unexploited resources yet I don't see any NATO armies in there. Please could you explain why this is Vicky.

[turningright]

i suggest we get digging immediately, it may just pay off our huge deficit and if there is any cash left over perhaps we could buy some more, and/or bigger bombs.
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im not lucky, i deserve it.
Sir Winston Churchill.

[Vicky]

[GypsyScy]

NATO may not be there but SHELL are:

http://remembersarowiwa.com/
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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde

[skaterboy]

yes they are and they are paying loads of money to the nigerian government for the privilege.

[GypsyScy]

Yes they are paying huge amounts of money to a corrupt government, police force and army to stand by them and protect them as they plunder and pillage the land and livelyhoods of the ordinary Nigerian civilians. Shell bribe and payout to the insane & power hungry Nigerian leaders.
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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde

[skaterboy]

So maybe we should send in the army to take control of this broken state after all if we just try to stop Shell some other evil conglomerate will surely step in and take over.

[Skunnered]

[GypsyScy]

^^ Exactly but the Nigerian people live in a state of poverty and the same thing will happen in Afganistan, it is a war being fought for profit and monetary reasons, the governement and officials will only make up a very small percentage of any nation, and the superpowers, USA, Britain etc will exploit those few to the detriment of the ordinary Afghan people, they disguise it as a war on Al-Queda alone but the long term goal as always is to expoit natural resources.
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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde

[Vicky]

[Skunnered]

^^I expect the oil companies will do the same as they do in all of the other countries, which is to pay for the licences, pay royalties, and pay tax where appropriate. They're not going to be able to suck oil out of the country for nothing, and they can't do that anywhere else in the world either.

[Skunnered]

And by the way, a great deal of the pollution in Nigeria is caused by vandals breaking the equipment and the pipelines and letting the oil escape into the swamps.

[ArabiaTerra]

[Skunnered]

^^You have a point there. Corporations generally have little morality, if any, and their main purpose for existing is to provide profits for their shareholders. That in itself isn't evil, but the way it's carried out is frequently immoral. How to control or improve that, I really have no idea.

It's interesting that Shell would like to exit Nigeria if it can sell its assets to someone else, but that's mainly because they are fed up with the difficult operating conditions i.e. vandalism and kidnappings, rather than having anything to do with morality.

But my original point was that the oil companies are not "stealing" the resources from the "poor" countries, they are paying for the privilege in various forms, although the morality of it may well be called into question in many cases.

[gafynandrew]

[bobdahog]

[partan]

dey should just wipe out da population o africa, pakistan, india, iraq, iran, and probably most o england fur dat matter,

da place is infested we dis muslims noo and all dat is goin ta mean is trouble and a lot o it.

i kane africa probably isna, but dat whole place is just a drain on da worlds resources just ta keep da buggers alive.

whits da point de do absoulutely nithin idder as reproduce and transmit aids.

[Seaflech]

[Baron Farkoff]

"dat whole place"
...pmsl....
Almost as funny as ATs post ingreatperformancesspacebarbroken.
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"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. All progress, therefore, depends upon the unreasonable man."
George Bernard Shaw

[judgeknott]

wow partan, your views are really interesting?

you should stand for Fuhrer at the next election!

Sieg Heil!

[trout]

[ArabiaTerra]

Aisha.

God is Great.
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There's an old saying: "We have not inherited this world from our parents, we have borrowed it from our children." This is simply not true. When you borrow you intend to pay back. We have been stealing the future of our children.~Jane Goodal

[Gibber]

^^"It's going to be when we actually hear about the progressive people of the country rising up and shaming the men and mullahs and misogynists."

Without claiming this to be an entirely just war this is going to be easier now after military intervention though. What was going to stop the Taliban before invasion, the huge groundswell of progressive people who would dare to shame them? They wouldn't make it out the front door before they had their bits chopped off.

Although if the progressive elements in Afg haven't made any difference by now after invasion, its not looking likely at all is it? Harsher opinions than mine would suggest that if they aren't ready to join the modern world they have no need for minerals and wealth anyway, do we need Afg being an even more backwards but just as wealthy Saudi Arabia with the Taliban elite driving around in gold plated Ferraris?

Perhaps the thread starter has some idea about how the pre invasion Taliban could have been dealt with from either within Afg or peacefully through international means.

Even if this war's real reason was stealing minerals or whatever, the side issue of the Taliban out of direct control has to be seen as good even if they are still up to their old tricks and all their potassium is sitting under a tarpaulin in Obama's attic.