Afghanistan...or Pipelineistan?

US General John Allen replaced General David Petraeus on July 18. Allen becomes the latest in a long line of commanders of US and international troops in the conflict. He inherits a command with over 140,000 troops in a war that's lasted nearly a decade and that's estimated to have already cost his country over $434 billion. Why does Allen's country continue to fight?

A recent op-ed by Pepe Escobar on Al Jazeera's website argues that it's all about a pipeline: the Turkmenistan/Afghanistan/Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline, to be precise. The pipeline would move gas from Central Asia to global markets, bypassing China and Russia. Escobar says "Washington has badly wanted TAP since the mid-1990s, when the Clinton administration was negotiating with the Taliban" and posits that the continued US military presence is necessary to pacify the country which is, in turn, necessary to construct the pipeline.

Escobar's article created a buzz in social media – rising to the number one story on Reddit last week. What generated the interest? Much of the conversation on Reddit focused on the costs of the US military presence in Afghanistan. User cookingisfunforme wrote: "For 5.4 trillion dollars we could have moon bases, space ferries and people on mars by now and still have money left over to build brand new schools for everyone AND research alternatives to fossil fuel, but no...blowing up brown people is much better for society."

On Al Jazeera's own website, the top rated comment on Escobar's piece suggested that the US has a larger motivation than just a pipeline: drug production, which commenter ozyism alleged funds CIA covert operations.

We also asked the Al Jazeera Facebook community, writing: "What role do you think the proposed pipeline from Turkmenistan's gas fields plays in continued US military involvement in Afghanistan?" Some agreed with Escobar's theory. Cole Nye Roberts left the comment that was most liked by his fellow users, writing "A huge role. A monster role. We Americans rarely fight wars our largest corporations don't insist on." Jeffrey Kenyon echoed his sentiment: " this factor is 100% of the "issue." it has never been anything else despite the propaganda to the contary…."

But not everyone agreed. Carmen Gindi wrote "…Trust me, the US can't afford to stay any longer. They want to leave, but if they do now, all h** will break loose and the Taliban will destroy the country even more than it is already destroyed."

Back on the Reddit post, Jebus21 disagreed with the premise that the pipeline could drive US foreign policy. "Many people, particularly neo-conservaties, sincerely believe such foreign commitments are imperative for our national security.…You only have to listen to [Senator John] McCain or [Senator Lindsay] Graham speak on the Senate floor to understand that this is a worldview that is especially pervasive in the U.S. and is likely a product of U.S. exceptionalism."

And in the comments on the original Al Jazeera post, a commenter who goes only by Gary writes: "There is another very basic simple reason not mentioned. Which is a universal human one. "They cannot admit they were wrong"."

These are some of the social media elements featured in this segment.