Dr. Evil: Why make a trillion when we could make... billions?
Austin Powers' arch nemesis may have the right idea. The news that Afghanistan has now hit the 'trillion' dollar jackpot may be more of a curse than a blessing. Not to say that a few billion dollars is pocket change, but Afghanistan may have been safer with a smaller sum. Naturally, the potential of a trillion dollars is going to attract more eyeballs. Specifically, the eyeballs with a pinky at their side... Like the country didn't have enough stability problems to begin with, now the incentives for corruption has just expanded...infintely.
Lucky for us Americans, though, we are over there with a hardly significant presence to be able to a) capitalize on the wealth or b) ensure that the country doesn't fall into sierra-leone like conditions because of it. Well, I don't think it would get that bad, but the stakes for regime stability in Afghanistan just got a lot higher.
There has been a lot of speculation about the fourth world war being that over scarce resources, namely water. Who knows...this could kick it off. Afghanistan is already in an extremely strategic location next to our best friends Iran and Pakistan, which makes it even more crucial for western powers to have a presence there...to see that it doesn't fall into the hands of our "peaceful nuclear energy using" comrades. Imagine Afghan's wealth combined with Anti-american sentiments: the consequences are foreboding.
The alternative of course would be a return to imperialism. Yeah right. I think the best we can hope for is a Dubai-esque situation where Afghanistan would quickly spend its new found wealth on indoor skiing and man-made islands. Short-term entertainment + eventual bankruptcy= a lot of immediate jobs with less room for corruption and destruction. Granted these findings are extremely fresh so who knows what is actually there and what it could actually lead to...
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