the money and muscle in Afghnistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The Afghan government is trying to grab the attention of President Donald Trump and gain greater U.S. support by dangling its massive and untouched wealth of minerals, including lithium, the silvery metal used in mobile phone and computer batteries that is considered essential to modern life.

But tapping into that wealth, which also includes coal, copper, rare earths and far more that estimates say could be worth from $1 trillion to $3 trillion, is likely a long way off.

Opium, which props up better than a third of Afghanistan's budget if I recall, is a bit icky for the U.S., which prefers its heroin on the streets. But a good business "deal," as the bourgeois American president constantly reminds us, is another matter. Afghanistan does, of course, provide a war tableau (undeclared, the longest in U.S. history) that is so much easier for politicians unwilling to stake their political clout on something peaceful and creative.