Imperialist nations — notably the U.S., Russia, China, and members of the European Union — need two things when they go to war: a public pretext and a real reason. The one is never the same as the other. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan shortly after 9/11, the pretext was to chase Al Qaeda out of the country and defeat the U.S.-created Taliban, who were shielding the formerly U.S.-backed Bin Laden and his followers.
The U.S. ruling class and its government tried to use this pretext to win over the working class, and particularly the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. The rulers knew it would be much harder to sell the real reason for the war: to protect the projected TAPI gas pipeline originating in Turkmenistan and passing through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. All wars in the Middle East — large and small, direct or by proxy — represent efforts by rival imperialists to secure control over energy sources, mainly oil and natural gas.
More than a decade later, energy remains a big part of the reason for the capitalists’ sustained war. Oil and gas will compel the U.S. to continue to occupy Afghanistan even after most combat personnel are removed to face more pressing wars for profit elsewhere. But since the 2001 invasion, the rulers have found another reason to stay, besides energy: Afghanistan is rich with all sorts of hard-to-find minerals.
Shortly after the invasion, geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey, a science organization under the Department of the Interior, were sent to Afghanistan to survey the area and determine where mineral reserves were located and in what amounts.Under direct protection of armed Marines, these geologists have discovered fabulous stores of wealth scattered around the country, including of dozens of heavy metals and rare earth elements.
While few people outside the scientific community have heard of these minerals, they are critical components of lasers, airplanes, batteries, and computers, among many other technological products. Many of these minerals have no known substitutes. (See “Afghanistan’s Buried Riches,” Scientific American, October 2011.)
The pretext given by the U.S. government for its systematic search for these minerals is to “generate wealth to raise the people of Afghanistan out of poverty and reduce their need to produce opium, the source of heroin.” (Afghanistan and Pakistan, together known as the Golden Crescent, produce more opium/heroin than all the countries of the so-called Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia.)
In reality, however, the people who live in regions rich in natural resources will be sacrificed by the millions as rival imperialists fight to control this wealth. To supplement their guns and bombs, the capitalists buy off and corrupt local rulers at the expense of these nations’ workers.
Until workers of all nations unite to cast off our imperialist oppressors and the capitalist system that spawns this murderous rivalry, this cycle of death and misery will continue. The Progressive Labor Party alone has the potential to forge such unity among the world’s workers and put an end to capitalism’s deadly rule.