The US spends $100 million a day on the war effort in Afghanistan and a further $7 million a day goes into reconstruction. It has committed to spend $2.4 trillion over the next ten years. Big, expensive buildings have been constructed in Kabul, now "owned by the war lords". Illegal drugs going from Afghanistan into the US and Europe generate about $500 million a year.

These figures are quoted by Afghan activist Malalai Joya as she deplores the extreme poverty in Afghanistan afflicting its 18 million people, most surviving on less than $2 a day. Both men and women in Afghanistan are in need of help, she says.

They do not support the Taliban, nor the war lords.

Estimates from the 2006 US Geological Survey and the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Industry show that the north of Afghanistan may possess more reserves of oil and gas than previously believed.

The Afghan Deputy Minister of the Mines and Industry, Engineer Mohammad Akram Gheyasi, told the Bakhtar News Agency (September 22, 2006): According to previous findings, the northern provinces of Balkh, Jozjan, Faryab and Sare-e-Pol had six oil fields and 120 billion cubic metres of oil reserves have been identified.

There are 45 million tones of geological reserves and 14.5 million tones of potential oil, which can be extracted. Undiscovered resources of gas and oil in north Afghanistan could be greater. Findings show that on average, Northern Afghanistan has 1.6 billion barrels of crude oil and 15.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Malalai Joya writes in her book that NATO wants to stay in Afghanistan to ensure the West has better access to her country's natural resources, which include massive deposits of copper and other metals, iron and natural gas. "Recently, China successfully bid billions of dollars for the right to exploit our copper deposits, which are estimated to be worth 88 billion dollars. With the current government we have in place - the most corrupt in the history of Afghanistan - these resources will be looted while the money will go to only a few people.

"If we could establish a real democratic government without foreign interference, these mining and energy resources could be developed for the benefit of all Afghans," she says.