KABUL (Dispatches) – Afghanistan’s $3 trillion wealth of natural resources has taken the center of attention for U.S. President Donald Trump in his strategy for the stalemate in the South Asian country.
While the US Department of Defense’s estimates have put Afghanistan’s untapped wealth of gold, copper, uranium and other rare-earth minerals at well around $1 trillion, Afghan officials’ latest geological studies have hinted the figure is three times bigger.
Washington’s war in Afghanistan has dragged on for 16 years and has cost the U.S. economy more than $714 billion dollars, according to the Pentagon's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) July report.
The second longest war in the U.S. history has also killed over 2,000 American soldiers and injured 20,000 more.
The Trump administration has been under overwhelming pressure to turn the tide in Afghanistan.
Although opinions vary on whether the U.S. president would authorize an increase in U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, there is a common consensus that the Trump administration is exploring ways to recoup some of the money funneled into the war over the past years.
In fact, Trump has already discussed the possibility with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani and reportedly views the potential there as a justification for prolonged U.S. military presence.
According to administration sources, the White House is already considering sending an envoy to Afghanistan to meet with mining official.
Trump has been receiving informal advice on Afghanistan from his billionaire friend Andy Feinberg, who owns major U.S. military corporation DynCorp.
The company has been operating in Afghanistan since 2003 and is believed to play a role in securing the country’s mines, according to the New York Times.