The Bush government wanted to change all that."
But, confronted with Taliban's refusal to accept US conditions, "this rationale of energy security changed into a military one", the authors claim.

"At one moment during the negotiations, the US representatives told the Taliban, 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs,'" Brisard said in an interview in Paris.
27 December 2002: Afghanistan Pipeline Deal signed
An agreement has been signed in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, paving the way for construction of a gas pipeline from the Central Asian republic through Afghanistan to Pakistan.

The building of the trans-Afghanistan pipeline has been under discussion for some years but plans have been held up by Afghanistan's unstable political situation.

Many people thought the war was about OIL (#1) from the beginning. Now more, and some significally powerful people are also saying it.And you're helping to spread the truth too. Cool.

Follow the pipelines and you can follow the path of conflicts and war. From the Caspian Sea to Sudan, etc.

#2, BTW, is Israel...although we're not suppose to say that.