Donald Trump is sending more troops to
Afghanistan, continuing the USA’s longest war. CEO Michael Silver, of
the American Elements corporation, wrote a short op-ed in the Wall
Street Journal, urging for the extraction of the country’s mineral
resources. Afghanistan remains unstable. Many questions must be asked.
The one on many minds is “Why is the USA in Afghanistan?”
Terrorism? Minerals? Or Something Else?
The USA has been occupying Afghanistan
since 2001. Why? Both supporters and opponents of US Afghan policy give
murky answers. Supporters of US efforts say they are in the country to
fight terrorism and help the country rebuild and move toward democracy.
Opponents of the occupation say the USA is seeking to control its rare
minerals such as neodymium, indium, gallium, and lanthanum which are
essential in making computer chips.
These answers are insufficient. As for
terrorism, since 2001, the presence and strength of terrorist groups in
Afghanistan has vastly increased. Al-Queda, ISIS, various warlords,
Jundallah, and many terrorist groups, most of which had minimal presence
under the Taliban government, are now all across the country. Even the
Taliban itself, the government the USA toppled in the 2001 invasion, has
not vanished, and still controls a large portion of the country. If the
USA is in Afghanistan to fight terrorism, its efforts have not only
completely failed, and but had the opposite of their intended affect.
https://journal-neo.org/2017/09/18/why-is-the-usa-in-afghanistan-an-answer-to-the-big-question/
