Trump Reportedly Considering Erik Prince's Bright Idea to Privatize the War in Afghanistan

By Paul Blest  |  August 17, 2018 | 8:00pm
Trumpland

Last month, Blackwater founder and war criminal Erik Prince unveiled a plan to privatize the 17-year long war in Afghanistan in an interview with British site the Independent. Apparently, someone was listening!

NBC News reports that current and former senior administration officials are worried that President Donald Trump, who has long been frustrated with the slow progress made in a war in a country that’s known as the “graveyard of empires” and yet thought it was a brilliant idea to send thousands of more troops into the country, is seriously considering Prince’s idea to replace U.S. troops in Afghanistan with “private military contractors who would work for a special U.S. envoy for the war who would report directly to the president.”

Per NBC News:

Trump’s renewed interest in privatization was stoked by a recent video shot by Prince, according to a senior administration official, in which Prince argues that deploying private contractors instead of U.S. troops, and using limited government resources, would save the U.S. money.

What can we say? The boy loves his shows.

Essentially, the plan is this: let’s keep doing the war, but for money, which incentivizes the companies that have the contracts to keep it going, and also takes the veneer of accountability over this travesty and puts it into the capable hands of….Donald Trump. Sounds about right.

According to NBC News, the prospect of Prince running war strategy has “raised ethical and security concerns among senior military officials, key lawmakers and members of Trump’s national security team.” (No shit.) NBC’s sources say the plan is opposed by both Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, but when has that ever stopped Trump before?

“I know he’s frustrated,” Prince told NBC. “He gave the Pentagon what they wanted. …And they haven’t delivered.” Prince also told NBC that he’s planning a media “air campaign” in coming days to try to get the president to sign onto his plan.

Shoutout to the New York Times’ opinion section for giving Erik Prince the space last year to run a classified ad for war profiteering. Thank you so much.

 
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