Rudyard
Kipling’s novel Kim is an adventure
story of the Empire which has something in common
with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness. Kipling immortalized the
‘Great Game’ of the nineteenth century
in Central Asia between Great Britain and Tsarist
Russia for supremacy in the region. The British
Empire saw Tsarist Russia’s expansion into
Central Asia as a threat to the ‘Jewel in
the Crown’. It feared Afghanistan would
become a launching post for a Russian invasion of
India.
Today, a new
‘Great Game’ is being played in
Central Asia which is for the control of energy
resources involving various powers. With the
discovery of precious minerals in Afghanistan
worth more than a trillion US dollars, the Great
Game has been extended to the Hindu Kush region.
Sadly, it will be soaked in blood and may turn
into the devil’s tears for the war-ravaged
Afghanistan and its hapless people.
The
news about the discovery of vast untapped mineral
resources may bring smiles on several faces -
Afghan political leaders, warlords and the
transnationals. One thing is, however, clear that
this new ‘Great Game’ will have
unintended consequences for Afghanistan. The
playing fields will in all likelihood be
mucked-up by oil barons, corrupt leaders and
warlords who are already feeding themselves on
the poppy highlands.
The new found
wealth will add a new economic and strategic
dimension to the Great Game in Afghanistan.
Russia and the US have already been part of the
game. Now China, Iran, India and some others will
join the splutter. China is already in Logar
Province in search of 240 million tonnes of copper
ore accessible via surface mines. Within days of
the reports of Afghanistan’s new treasure
discovery, the war-torn country has invited India
to bid for and develop its mines to feed
India’s burgeoning steel industry. Rugged
terrain, lack of infrastructure and insurgency may
yet deter the greedy nations and multinational
corporations from venturing into Afghanistan for
some time.
Not that the Americans,
Russians and others did not know about
Afghanistan’s hidden treasure. It is rather
intriguing that something like this should be
brought to light now what American geologists
knew all along about these precious reserves like
iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium. Obviously,
it is part of a larger game plan.
The
new discovery will definitely fuel further
conflict. Some see the discovery as a massive
information operation. One could argue that the
“discovery” of the minerals will
stiffen America’s greedy resolve. If
impoverished Afghanistan is projected as a
country with bright economic future, so goes the
argument, it will help convince the war-fatigued
public that securing the country is worth the
fight and loss of troops.
The same
logic prevailed in Iraq. American society and
economy have been nursed on cheap oil. The idea
that energy security is a right as well as a
necessity has become part of American foreign
policy tradition. George Bush justified killings
in Iraq for oil. As one commentator has aptly
said, “Exxon was in the kitchen with Dick
Cheney when the Iraq war was being cooked
up.” Will Obama justify longer war and
larger loss of life for the minerals?
Bruce Riedel, the former CIA officer and
adviser to President Bush on Afghanistan, has
hinted that the US could provide the Afghans
security and logistics to build up its mining
capacity. Riedel’s observation that
“Obama’s war just became more
important and more complicated at the same
time” says it all.
If
blood diamonds in Angola and Sierra Leone were a
crucial factor in prolonging brutal war, so will
be oil and other minerals. George Bush invaded
Iraq for oil. The only people who hoped to benefit
were wealthy oilmen who had financed his election
campaign. The Iraq war may not have gone the way
Bush wanted, but the war and its untidy aftermath
have swelled the coffers of the biggest American
oil companies.
Many would be tempted
by Afghanistan’s new wealth discovery as a
pimple waiting to be pricked. But Afghanistan is
packed with warlords and they may have the last
laugh. The world community must spare the people
of Afghanistan the ordeal of more war and death
for the sake of its mineral
treasures.
