Letter: New fuel for our presence in Afghanistan

Saturday, Dec. 24, 2005 | 7:57 a.m.

On Dec. 18 letter writer Clorinda Fontano commented rather succinctly to my Dec. 11 letter. She wrote that there were three reasons why we were still maintaining troops in Afghanistan: 1)Osama 2)bin 3)Laden.

I had written that that was ostensibly our prime motivation, but then I decided to Google both the words Afghanistan and energy and I came up with some very interesting results. It seems that the Caspian Sea has oil reserves estimated at possibly 50 billion barrels. Current estimates say that in comparison the United States has roughly 21 billion barrels.

Additionally, Afghanistan has estimated natural gas reserves of 5 trillion cubic feet and last, but certainly not least, Afghanistan has an estimated 73 million tons of coal deposits. The problem with the Caspian Sea is that it is landlocked and since the mid-'90s Big Oil has been trying to get a pipeline built to the Arabian Sea and its outlets. The best route is right through, you guessed it, Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, between the Taliban and the resident tribal warlords a pipeline becomes an extremely risky endeavor, so a U.S. military presence appears to be a very viable solution and, if along the way, we happen to nail Osama bin Laden, all the better.

Ms. Fontano was correct mathematically with three reasons, but considering that the current administration is joined at the hip with the energy interests, I would posit that oil, natural gas and coal are much stronger motivations than Osama bin Laden, who, in all probability, met an untimely end in a Tora Bora cave that got pulverized by a Bunker Buster. At least I hope so.

Joseph J. Carbone

Las Vegas