# Baby Powder Is the Secret Weapon in the Afghanistan War



## Disir (Jun 22, 2018)

America’s longest war grinds on with little hope, with neither side able achieve a lasting victory. What could break the deadlock? Where should the U.S. focus its efforts to find a path to a negotiated ending to a violent civil war, such as we saw in the Balkans in the 1990s and in Colombia this decade?

Two vital fronts of this challenge are closely linked:  addressing the endemic problem of corruption and finding a viable economic model for the country.  And a key source of both potential wealth and ongoing corruption is Afghanistan’s abundance of minerals, thought to be worth as much as $1 trillion by some sources. 

Yes, instability is adding to the difficulty of attracting initial investment, but over time there is every possibility for large-scale mining of lithium, gold, iron, copper, lead, rare earths, gemstones and talc.
Baby Powder Is the Secret Weapon in the Afghanistan War

And that's why we are still there.


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## basquebromance (Jun 24, 2018)

Afghanistan is full of expensive, embarrassing USAID boondoggles, from cobblestone roads that Afghans consider unusable as they hurt camel's feet to fertilizer handouts that inadvertently enhance poppy cultivation & in turn, Afghan's drug economy


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