Afghanistan is primarily in the way between the gas resources discovered in Turkmenistan and the pipeline in Pakistan which is where the west can siphon off these resources and ensure that they stay in the West's control rather than being tapped by Russia and used as an economic lever for more power.
In a sensible world this would not happen, but instead we have dictators who rule, be they democratically elected, puppets, or warlords, but essentially they share the same traits and cause the endless mess we are inflicted with generation after generation.
This could only be avoided in a bizarre world where the most sensible solutions to our global problems prevailed, which were fair to all and did not favor the most powerful (crazy idea I know).
But in such a world there would be no need for the disputed region, no need to fight off Russia etc. as there would be much smaller organizations who worked together to create value for themselves and others but governed by a legal framework in which it was against the law to exploit others distress or levy distress upon others.
In such a system, it would be illegal to invade a neighbor (levy distress), it would be illegal to control the resources for one group as this would result in exploitation of others because the Earths resources do not belong to anyone and cannot be claimed as owned simply because of the land which one was born on.
This is not a right to a resource no more than it is to claim that another country belongs to oneself . The only way one can claim a right to ownership is if they created that value themselves and can prove the resource or item (and the value of this) was indeed created by them.
Otherwise in such a sensible (crazy) world these resources would be used wisely for the good of everyone without exclusion.
There of course would be damages and resolutions to such, which would need to be factored at the earliest stages with every cost incurred, be it now or in the future of using the said resource and all costs being factored into the cost price and proceeds used to directly repair or counter any negatives which are envisaged.
Such a crazy world that would be ha...