Press TVThu, 17 Jun 2010 10:16:51 GMT
The news released earlier on Afghanistan's vast riches of minerals is the last card the US plays to appease the war-weary mind of the American nation fed up with the cost of war, analyst Dilip Hiro says.
American geologists say that Afghanistan is filled with minerals, including iron, lithium, and gold. The value of the minerals is reportedly estimated at a trillion dollars.
Press TV invited author and analyst Dilip Hiro in London to discuss whether the new finding would affect the US-led war efforts in Afghanistan. The following is a rush transcript of the interview.
Press TV:Is the recent discovery of massive minerals in Afghanistan true and if it is, what could it mean for Afghanistan?
Dilipi Hiro:If this is a question of American program, you see there are two points to it. One is that the United States and the Pentagon want to have a big fight with the Taliban and show that they are strong on the battle field, and then they want to talk to Taliban as the weak party. That's their first assumption. Secondly, at the same time in December 2009 Obama said he will send extra 30,000 troops and he also said that the US will start withdrawing its troops slowly of course from July 2011. Here is the problem. Because the first assumption that the Pentagon forces are going to weaken Taliban and establish themselves as the superior party on the battle field is not working out.
In February this year, NATO forces along with US forces captured the town of Marjah, which is inhabited by 50,000, for which they deployed 15,000 troops. They were able to expel the Taliban, who fought for a while and then they left and then the foreigners said now that it is clear and we are holding it, and this is going to be a model. They decided to follow suit in a bigger scale in the second largest city of Afghanistan Kandahar which has three quarter million population. But I'm afraid that has not particularly worked out because by now that is early June they have already had the Taliban back into Marjah. By the day time it is the Western forces which are in control. At night it is the Taliban which is in control. So therefore, the whole idea which was to put on February this year, that the NATO and the US forces together are going to go in and capture Kandahar completely, expel the Taliban and show that they are not going to beat the Taliban in the battle field. That particular plan has collapsed. Now General McChrystal, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), says no we do not want to capture all of it we just want to make a ring around it so that the Taliban can not move in and out. The whole policy of the US war in Afghanistan has fallen apart. David Petraeus, Commander of US Forces in the Middle East, said some thing will happen in September. That means the US strategy to strengthen themselves in the battle field to prove themselves as the stronger military party and put down their conditions for peace talks with the Taliban has collapsed.
Press TV:US-led forces in Afghanistan have been having a difficult time recently with spiking death tolls and injuries, does this announcement of minerals help to offset the wounds of war?
Dilipi Hiro:The next step after securing Kandahar will be to hand over security to the Afghan army and police. This is while; the Afghan army and police have huge problems which can be solved not in years but in decades. One of the problems is the illiteracy of the Afghan police which is ten percent. Only one out of ten Afghan police can read. As far as the military is concerned, 40 percent of the military is illiterate. How can you expect a force which is maximum 40 percent literate to be able to handle sophisticated machinery or fighting equipment or communicate with each other because they can not even write? Now when they get their salary they get their thumb impression. So the US thinking that by sending more troops would resolve the problems is a huge mistake. And the second point is the cost of keeping forces in Afghanistan. Do you know how much will it cost for the US Treasury to maintain one American soldier for one year in Afghanistan? Each soldier costs one million dollars a year. There are 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan which will become a total of 100 billion dollars. The Afghan gross domestic product GDP is 12 billion dollars. Therefore, the American public is fed up with the war. The last poll made by ABC news and Washington Post said that 53 percent of Americans say that the fight in Afghanistan is not worth it. So the US has weaknesses domestically as well as militarily. The whole idea of sending more forces to win the Afghan war has proved totally wrong, whereas for the Taliban the whole concept changes. They can increase their fighting force with no amount of money. They are a lot of nationalists who want to fight voluntarily with the infidel foreign troops. Therefore, on the side of Americans every thing is based on such weak foundations that it simply can not succeed.
RZS/HRF/MB
Uprooted Palestinian
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