Moving forward on the Turk.. Afghan.. Pakistan.. India.. (TAPI) pipline

The TAPI pipeline is planned to be built along the Herat-Kandahar highway across western and southern Afghanistan.  

I will be the first to admit I am wrong and in this case Karzai has proven me wrong.  Many times I have stated that there will not be a pipeline built from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to the consumers of Pakistan and India.  Although my argument that such a lucrative target would be too easy to destroy I believe still holds merit.

Afghanistan has pledged 7 000 troops to provide security for the pipeline as it would be a major windfall for the Afghan government to:

A. provide security for a large construction and maintenance over the long term by itself without the use of foreign troops

B. the pipeline would give the Afghans much need cash and jobs as the foreign forces begin their withdrawal.

FATALITIES BY PROVINCE - The route of the proposed TAPI gas pipeline is exactly where most U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan (the blood red provinces of Helmand and Kandahar) .  Americans, Canadians, and Europeans are fighting and dying in Afghanistan (and Pakistan). 
 Operation Enduring Freedom, iCasualties.org

Afghanistan pledges soldiers for TAPI pipeline

About 7,000 soldiers from Afghan security forces will guard the projected Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline,  construction of which is due to start in 2012, Afghanistan's Bakhtar news agency said late on Sunday, quoting the country's Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani.

Shahrani said if large forces were needed to defend the pipeline, they would be in place.

Afghanistan,India, Pakistan and Turkmenistan signed a final agreement on Saturday to build the TAPI gas pipeline, intended to carry gas to India from Central Asian states.

In October, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said gas giant Gazprom might participate in a consortium to build the pipeline. India suggested Gazprom join the project as one of its suppliers along with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The 1,700 kilometer pipeline will have a flow capacity of 30 billion cubic meters per year and a rough cost of $4 billion. The project, stalled by the war in Afghanistan, is supported by the Asian Development Bank .

KABUL, December 13 (RIA Novosti)