Thursday, June 17, 2010

Bidding Afghanistan up

After the silliness noted earlier this week about the one trillion dollars worth of mineral suddenly discovered in Afghanistan, this morning brought an extra side order of VerySilly. AP reports that the minerals found lying around there are now worth THREE TRILLION, so it must be worth all those deaths and continuing with an unwinnable war, right?

It really makes you wonder just how stupid a) the US military is and b) how stupid the US military thinks the world is. Meanwhile, this humble scribe loved the breathless bit about how the Afghan officials are off to London next week to pitch the iron ore deposits to the Brits. After all, it was a Brit who found them in the first place.....169 years ago. Here's a quote:

"The quality of the ore is excellent, and the richest varieties are to be found," a surveyor wrote in a report on Afghanistan’s untapped natural resources.

The surveyor was one Captain Drummond, a British officer in the 3rd Light Cavalry. The year? 1841.

It's gonna be big news to the limeys, for sure. Meanwhile, if The Hawaiian really wants to know about the mineral wealth of Afghanistan, he should stop listening to the USGS and phone up Hunter Dickinson and ask them all about it. After all, it was HD who got kicked out of the country when the Chinese muscled in on the copper there.