>>The Afghan war began as a just response to the Taliban government providing shelter and support to the Bin Laden terrorists. The oil argument serves to keep our forces in Afghanistan long after they should have been recalled. Personally I think its insane to think of building pipelines in a country with Afghanistan's history of strife and instability.<<
>To say nothing of the geography involved.<
The purposed oil and gas pipelines would run from Turkmenistan through western Afghanistan. When you hear Herat and Kundahar mentioned that's the Afghan leg of the route.
Two key drivers of growth in world economies are energy and credit. The focus of the new Great Game is whether Central Asia's energy will flow north through Russia or South, to the world's markets.
In depth here....PDF File, 4008 Kb
Council On Foreign Relations conference where Steve LeVine said “US policy is pipeline-driven..."