Is Afghanistan the Saudi Arabia of Lithium ? YES. How about Cooper ? YES. Iron Ore ? YES. . . . . and Treasure Trove of Rare Earth Minerals ? ? ? YES HUGE !

[Roch + 537]

IS THIS WHY AFTER 20 YEARS THE U.S. IS STILL IN AFGHANISTAN ? 

Will the U.S. expend $Trillions and sacrifice thousands of life's in Afghanistan and watch as China walks in , buys off the leaders and takes all the rare earth minerals and lithium ?  YES. 

U.S. spent $ Trillions in Middle East , lost thousands of lives , fought endless wars and kept the shipping lanes open so China had its supply of oil.  

China had signed mining agreements with China but still to dangerous to go into the country.  Most of the Rare Earth Minerals are in Helmand Province. Dangerous. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Roch

[0R0 + 6,251]

That and poppies.And a very strategic location. CIA makes its living off the drug and human trafficking trade - just like its predecessors the East India company and the English crown. 

[Boat + 1,324]

It was more the Republicans in the US that promoted those wars. It was a popular idea to get revenge after 911 but after a couple years GW decided to go after Iraq as well. As the years and and the wars trudged on the public started to ask, just how long does revenge take and why are we putting our troops are at risk for apparently no reason. 
So we as a nation hired a black man as president figuring he could do no worse than a Texan. And the nation was right.
 

[Strangelovesurfing + 737]

This podcast (~1 hour long) has Scott Horton talking about the long war motivations. It focuses more on the Middle East but the reasonings he gives for US foreign policy decisions can be carried over to Afghanistan, imo.

https://www.podparadise.com/Podcast/1003465597/Listen/1614909218/0

Heres a bit on Scott Horton if you're unfamiliar.

https://www.amazon.com/Scott-Horton/e/B074V91F35%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Edited March 10, 2021 by Strangelovesurfing