Big surprise from the New York Times today.

Our government has discovered a trillion dollars in minerals in Afghanistan.... Wow so there is something to fight for over there in addition to democracy... Or did we know that all along?

I mean we went there first to get Osama Bin Laden, right? Never got him...
Then we helped some old Unocal guy named Karzai become the president... And he and his cronies are taking full advantage of their positions (the article mentions one of his ministers got a $30 million bribe from the Chinese to assign a contract for a copper mine to them)...
And we recently decided we need to send more troops there and expand the war...
All for democracy?
Or for a trillion dollars worth of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium...