Afghanistan's minerals are hardly news

Occasionally your editorials should lack some predictability, if only to encourage people to actually read them. When the news of potential mineral exploration in Afghanistan recently cropped up, my wife accurately predicted that we would find an instant editorial in the paper suggesting that this is the "real" reason American troops are in Afghanistan ("Afghan Riches," June 16). I hate it when she is right, particularly at 6 a.m.

Afghanistan has had a mining industry since the time of Julius Caesar. Lapis lazuli, those colorful blue stones, was first discovered in Afghanistan and has been continuously mined there for thousands of years. The type and extent of minerals in Afghanistan have been known for many, many years by the major mining companies.

The fact that the U.S. Geological Survey has updated its information would not even be news, if this were some other area of the world. However, the major problem with the theory that America will somehow benefit if the minerals are finally mined is the fact that the largest mining companies in the world that mine copper and iron ore are BHP, an Australian company, and Vale, a Brazilian company.

JIM CANNON
Mt. Lebanon