The latest news coming out of Afghanistan lately, starts to paint a better picture why so much fighting has took place over the years in this very poor part of the Middle East. Why was the Soviets trying to occupy the lands in Afghanistan during the 1980′s? Why is the United States currently fighting a war inside the borders of Afghanistan? Why did the Taliban take over the central government and tried to run the country on their own? A lot of questions that didn’t make a lot of sense and we were only left trying to guess why each party had a vested interest in the Afghan soil.

It seemed pretty obvious the Soviet Union wanted a bigger territory and more of a land mass in Europe, so they were trying to take control of the country 30 years ago. After the 2001 bombings from the Middle East Terrorists that caused 4 hi-jacked planes to crash in the World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon, and in a Pennsylvania field; it was obvious why America went in and invaded the country of Afghanistan. Finally you have the Taliban, who came in after the Soviets left and before America sent troops in, and they had took over and was basically running the country of Afghanistan. All of these parties seeking control of an area in the Middle East that doesn’t seem like a place anyone would want to own. Perhaps the only people who truly love Afghanistan are the people who live there, work there, and have gotten use to life in such a baron and harsh country.

Now a few secrets are starting to emerge and the earliest records we have right now, are the geological surveys and estimates the Soviet Union was doing in Afghanistan. They had been mapping and keeping a collection of data that pertained to all of the untapped resources that were in Afghanistan in the early 80′s. China also has a part of this and they already won a bid earlier on a copper mine in one of the areas of China. An official working for the Afghan Government was bribed $30,000,000 dollars from the people’s Republic of China for some other areas in Afghanistan that appear to be rich in natural minerals and resources. China is a country that faces a huge shortage of natural resources for all the people they currently have inside their borders. Chinese Officials are doing all they can to secure areas outside of the borders of China for these valuable resources.

The latest news is coming from the Pentagon and a few of their employees teamed up with a few geologists to conduct a series of tests in Afghanistan for some of these valuable and precious resources. These tests began in 2007 or at least that is the public information that is being released right now. How many other geological tests and surveys the U.S. may have did or conducted before the year of 2007 is not clear or is information no one in the Pentagon, White House, or on Capitol Hill is acknowledging at this time.

Did the Soviet Union seek an ownership in Afghanistan, because of all the rich resources this land is now known to have? Has the United States written their own script to have soldiers and geologists currently in Afghanistan? I think a lot of people will be wondering how early the USA suspecting there was a vast amount of natural resources in the Afghan country. While China has been the only country not to send in troops to this area of the Middle East, they seem to have a strong interest in the vast amount of resources this land might posses in the Middle East.

Large amounts of copper and lithium are expecting to be under the soil and deposited in this poor land from what most consider a 3rd world nation. There may also be a few gold veins running through the country of Afghanistan; which mining companies from all over the world will have an interest in. The Pentagon is assisting the Afghan Government in helping them to create a bidding system for their precious and natural resources. The wealth contained under the dirt could be huge for one of the poorest nations in the region. This could help Afghanistan tremendously in the future and help this country to get back on its feet, as they try to push the Taliban further away and hopefully out of their country for good. There is already a growing concern that the Taliban will put up a tougher front with the latest news about these valuable resources. The only other value in this country is the farm lands that produce and sell opium plants; which most are illegally growing or trafficking to other countries around the world.

The new resources like gold, lithium, and copper could be the answer to all of the Afghan citizen’s prayers, if these minerals are harvested and mined properly, so the country can benefit from it. You probably have a battery in your remote control or a cell phone or laptop computer battery that has lithium in it right now. This mineral alone could be huge for all the companies around the world that look to other nations for their supplies of lithium, to keep up with the growing demand of lithium batteries. This will be one story from Afghanistan that won’t be going away anytime soon and the interesting part now will be which countries get access to these areas that are loaded with an abundance of natural resources.