In a nutshell - oil and gas!
Do not believe the mainstream lies which have morphed from one year to the next; it began with the excuse of purging the Taliban and Al Qaeda, where
Osama bin Laden was hiding in the mountains somewhere, who was blamed for the 9/11 attack.
Today, Brown made a speech which now spouts this new rhetoric (in relation to Karzai's false premiership):
...he was not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm's way for a government that does not stand up against corruption...
Guardian
Kind of ironic, as he is also a leader who has never been elected!
TAPI Pipeline
Anyway, i'll cut to the chase and i've created the following animation to explain my point, as a picture paints a thousand words (
Right click and
select [View image] to see larger version in your browser). This was created from the following quote from Wiki:
The 1,680 kilometres (1,040 mi) pipeline will run from the Dauletabad gas field to Afghanistan. From there TAPI will be constructed alongside
the highway running from Herat to Kandahar, and then via Quettaand Multan in Pakistan. The final destination of the pipeline will
be the Indian town of Fazilka, near the border between Pakistan and India.[3]
Wiki
Source (more maps
available)
(Note: I added the topography map, just to show how the pipeline will follow the highway between Herat and Kandahar, avoiding the mountainous
areas)
Within Asia, there's something called the "Golden Crescent", an area of illicit opium production. Afghanistan's
major export is
opium, where i'm sure the CIA would
love for it to flourish to further embellish & embrace
organized crime. That's one reason for occupation, but there's another motive - transit of the black gold from one of the last bastions on the
planet with a huge reserve of oil & gas...
So where's the oil and gas?
The Caspian Sea and gas fields in Turkmenistan, that's where. There is now a sense of urgency to extract these reserves as
peak oil has now been reached. Experts estimate the Caspian could hold "possible reserves" of up to
233 billion barrels of oil. By comparison, Saudi Arabia has 261 billion barrels of oil and the United States 23 billion!
The TAPI pipeline will go through Afghanistan and the quasi-government ran by karzai (who was apparently an ex-employee of Unocal, the US oil company
who were involved with a memorandum of understanding for the pipeline proposed build way back in 1996). Afghanistan will get huge transit fees for
this pipeline, hence the blatant corruption that's going on with Karzai's 'smoke 'n mirrors' tenancy, as he was bought many moons ago and bent
over the proverbial barrel.
Proof that oil is the reason...
Look at the map; notice the deaths of military in and around the proposed pipeline, especially Helmand Province. The TAPI pipeline will begin
construction in 2010, hence the urgent surge in troop requirements to secure the route.
It's also interesting to note, that a brand new highway was constructed between Herat and Kandahar which the Afghans thought served no purpose, but
of course it does serve a purpose because the pipeline will run alongside the highway!
So whilst the Taliban occupy the highlands and poppy fields, the military are busy safeguarding the proposed Herat / Kandahar
silk route. If more troops are sent in the name of democracy and fighting Taliban resistance, just
expect more casualties of war in and around the this key region, thus corroborating the real reason for the war...OIL.
Edit: Added (casualty) map link
[edit on 6-11-2009 by PrisonerOfSociety]