Afghanistan will never have a fix for war. The location of the country places it as a major crossroads of the world that will always be tantalizing to foreign powers. From all directions, every culture and civilization has transited through Afghanistan to get to and from the Far East, fighting, conquering, being resisted and fighting again and again to control the region…with no lasting success.
The stoic and aggressive resistance of the Afghan peoples, along with the impossible terrain, have served to challenge and eventually defeat even the most powerful and technologically advanced of nations which have attempted to control the region.
As a result, Afghanistan’s first riches: its location, has been the cause of wars, rumors of wars and various international schemes that ended up being dealt with through war.
The current riches are in Afghanistan’s location. In conjunction with Pakistan, Afghanistan has historically been a haven for Muslim terrorists who operate throughout the world. Along with the former Soviet Union’s desire for transit to a warm water port and to control Muslim hegenomy within the Union, the ability of terrorists to hide in Afghanistan is the cause of the past 50 years of war.
The discovery of massive riches, primarily in the form of rare earth metals that are essential for virtually all high tech devices and processes, will only lead to competition for intervention by the world’s most powerful nations. And these nations are not always in agreement with each other over how to create enough stability to operate within Afghanistan.
Enriching the problematic and dangerous political entities that struggle to achieve political dominance in Afghanistan will lead to ongoing interventions by developed nations in order to enforce social and political stability, restriction of income to peaceful purposes, and ending horrific oppression in the social structure, inside Afghanistan and throughout the world. No nation is going to encourage another well financed haven for unstable terrorism or for those who want to achieve world domination.
As with the past wars in Afghanistan, the current war is making no inroads and is making no progress. The discovery of minerals that are the object of much multinational competition, since the only other source is China, will guarantee that continuing wars will make no inroads or progress toward establishing a stable government that can even make it safe for the skilled foreigners who will have to be brought in to mine and process the substances.
War in Afghanistan will be the permanent consequence of foreign military presence that is determined to establish and enforce stability in a tantalizingly located and mineral rich nation that has powerful factions who are equally, if not more determined to resist all stability, foreign influence and occupation for all time.
