To Erradicate or Regulate Afghan Opium.

[Colin Parkinson]

Mining on any scale requires stable government and some infastructure. Looking at the hills, I don't doubt that Afghanistan is mineral rich, it's just never been stable enough to exploit it.

found it

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/afghanminerals/

 

[paracowboy]

Good point. In a country with oodlles and oodlles of mountains, why no mining?

as I understand it, nuthin' to mine, really. The only thing you're gonna dig up there is unexpended Soviet ordnance. That 'nation' has nothing.

Which makes the Leftists with their claims of colonialism appear to be even more moronic than usual, non? The West has no interests there, other than bringing peace and prosperity to a people who haven't had either for 30 years.

 

[KevinB]

Red and I have applied  


Seriously -- it needs a multifaceted approach.

Eradication is required -- as is education, supplementation of crops and support.  Legal growth and medical cultivation need to be done in a controlled environment -- the idea of simply saying -- let them grow and harvest for legal routes is spewed by people who have zero understanding of the Afghanistan situation.

I'm not a farmer - but in my treks around Afghan I've noticed a lack of irrigation and infrastructure.
 NGO's need to get off their ass - as does gov't supported developement.

The Army can kick all the ass it wants -- but if you cannot make a better life for ALL Afghani's then you have a rift that the EN will exploit.
 

 

 

[Colin Parkinson]

as I understand it, nuthin' to mine, really. The only thing you're gonna dig up there is unexpended Soviet ordnance. That 'nation' has nothing.

Which makes the Leftists with their claims of colonialism appear to be even more moronic than usual, non? The West has no interests there, other than bringing peace and prosperity to a people who haven't had either for 30 years.

"Cough, cough"  8)

Geology of Afghanistan

Afghanistan has some of the most complex and varied geology in the world. The oldest rocks are Archean and they are succeeded by rocks from the Proterozoic and every Phanerozoic system up to the present day. The country also has a long and complicated tectonic history, partly related to its position at the western end of the Himalaya. This diverse geological foundation has resulted in a significant mineral heritage with over 1400 mineral occurrences recorded to date. Historical mining concentrated mostly on precious stone production, with some of the oldest known mines in the world believed to have been established in Afghanistan to produce lapis lazuli for the Egyptian Pharaohs. More recent exploration in the 1960s and 70s resulted in the discovery of significant resources of metallic minerals, including copper, iron and gold, and non-metallic minerals, including halite, talc and mica. The bedrock geology of Afghanistan can be thought of as a jigsaw of crustal blocks separated by fault zones, each with a different geological history and mineral prospectivity. This jigsaw has been put together by a series of tectonic events dating from the Jurassic.

 

[paracowboy]

okay, I've been owned.

I was trying so hard to be 'folksy' and 'down-homey' I didn't word it properly.

Colin rules, pary-poo drools.  :-[

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Don't feel bad, I have been "owned" on this board more times than I can count, my ego is slowly healing  :crybaby: