Gen. David Petraeus: We Can't Leave Afghanistan Now, They Have Trillions of Dollars of Minerals
"If Afghanistan can become the central Asian 'roundabout,' to use
President Karzai's term, to where it can be the new Silk Road, think of
the implications for that, recalling that, of course, Afghanistan is
blessed with the presence of what are trillions, with an 'S' on the end,
trillions of dollars worth of minerals if, and only if, you can get the
extractive technology, the human capital operated, the lines of
communication to enable you to get it out of the country and all the
rest of that. Very big 'if.' And of course, there's a foundation of
security that would be necessary on, on which to build all of that. But,
again, the prospects are very significant if you can achieve
objectives." -- Gen. David Petraeus, Meet the Press, Sunday, August
15th, 2010
