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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023

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Battlefield 2042: Middle East DLC

Iran and the Taliban had a little border scuffle recently. Leaving 2-4+ dead and some wounded.

The Taliban allegedly used material left over by the US, like the iconic Humvee. That is alleged(by me) to be occupied by a neo-conservative machine spirit.

It feels a rather hopeless situation. With both countries being alienated from the west by a large degree, it seems hard to figure out a typical 'resolution' to the conflict. Both sides need a scarce resource, water. It's a rather typical sci-fi scenario, and fiction would have one believe the only way forward is war.

But I reserve some hope for an alternative. At the same time as both countries are without western allies, it's not like the region is completely without value. And the pressure to go to a bloody and costly war might hopefully be averted by these nations forging alliances that they would otherwise not have considered. Though I'm not sure which way those would go. Having heard rumors of both China and Russia engaging in dealings with the Taliban post US occupation, they would be obvious candidates. But considering the alternative being potential war, one would hope the sky is the limit.

Then again, maybe this gets resolved without any issue. Time will tell.

it's not like the region is completely without value.

I always had a chuckle when they called Afghanistan "strategically important". Afghanistan is one of the least strategically important countries of its size in the world, having few natural resources, and even fewer human resources. The only way it becomes strategically important is when some country decides to dump blood and treasure into it for no reason.

The U.S. empire should definitely encourage Russia and China to take an interest in that godforsaken part of the world.

having few natural resources

My understanding was that there were actually thought to be sizeable mineral deposits in the country (lithium, rare earth metals, etc.) but that there was so little infrastructure that not only was profitable mining out of the question but that even verification of the size and quality of the deposits was very difficult. Is this incorrect?

Oh it's correct, especially the lithium, but the infrastructure just isn't there, and it wouldn't be for many, many years.