Here's the article on this amazing NYT gamechanger. I don't know what it'll do for the war but damn. Afghanistan is now an incredibly wealthy country:
Afghanistan has a massive Gold, Lithium Reserve
The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and Blackberries.
People are joking on twitter that we're never going to leave Afghanistan now, but this is deadly serious. The good news is that Afghans could leave poppy to try to get a better resource. The bad news is that they have never mined before and there is a history of other countries exploiting them.
As for this report itself? It's from the military. This could be a report by the military to try to pressure President Obama into staying.
It also draws echoes to GW Bush and Iraq's war for "oil". I'm not convinced that was the reason he drove to war but that view is prominent (Personally, I think he foolhardily wanted to avenge his father's prudent moves during the first gulf war by going in and invading). Nonetheless, it could be viewed that we're staying purely for the resources here.
UPDATE O/T?: WaPo has just published an enormous article on Committee Assignments and Industry Investments. Number one on the list, surprisingly, is....RON PAUL. Conflicts of Interests and Legislators
Here's a priceless Ron Paul quote on his interests: "Everybody invests out of self-interest. That's not a story." - Sure Ron....Sure.