Blackwater Founder's 'Disturbing' Plan to Privatize Afghan War Gains
Ground
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| Yeah, send in the mercs. What could possibly go wrong? |
According
to a report by
Katrina Manson of the Financial Times on Monday, Prince has
drafted a proposal—dated August 2017—that would hand the longest war in
American history over to a private "band of experienced sergeants,"
who would fight alongside U.S.-trained Afghan forces.
Prince,
Manson writes, "proposes a two-year plan for fewer than 5,000 global guns
for hire and under 100 aircraft, bringing the total cost of the U.S. effort to
turn round a failing war to less than $10 billion a year."
In
an op-ed for USA
Today published Monday, Prince elaborated on his war plan, which Manson notes
would be very similar to his approach in Iraq, where he had significant
influence on U.S. policy.
Prince,
the brother of Education
Secretary Betsy DeVos, argues that Trump should "restructure"
the war—a process he suggests would resemble "bankruptcy
reorganization"—by "aligning U.S. efforts under a presidential
envoy," which in a previous op-ed he called a "viceroy."
Following
the publication of his most recent piece, Prince appeared on CNN and
noted that Steven Bannon, "some folks" at the National Security
Council, and "quite a few" members of Congress have been receptive to
his plan to privatize the war.
The Financial
Times further noted that "Central Intelligence Agency director Mike
Pompeo visited Afghanistan last week to assess U.S. strategy and in part to
consider how Prince's proposal might fit into it."
Critics
have warned that while Prince's plan may save money, it will potentially open
the door to deadly abuses by unaccountable forces, like those seen in
Iraq.
"If
contractors are replacing soldiers and they are on the frontline they could
kill or be killed, there could be kidnaps or insider attacks—what happens if
they commit a crime or bodies have to be sent back; there would be a large
number of legal complications," one official told the Financial Times.
Ronald
Neumann, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007,
echoed these concerns in an interview with
the Navy Times.
"There's
a bad record of contractors and human rights abuses," Neumann said.
"There's no legal structure to govern this."
Others
have offered a more scathing assessment of Prince's proposals, likening them to
"literal
colonialism" and arguing that the plan is primarily driven by
his desire to profit from the 16-year conflict.
As Common
Dreams reported last
week, Trump recently fumed in a meeting with generals and high-ranking national
security officials that the U.S. is not "winning" the war.
He
also complained that businesses are not working quickly enough to secure a
share of Afghanistan's vast mineral wealth, which has been valued at around $1
trillion.
Prince
appears eager to capitalize on the strategic conflict within the
administration, and his recent moves indicate that he sees a significant
business opportunity in Afghanistan.
Last
week, the Military Times reported that
Prince submitted a "business proposal" to the Afghan government,
which included a plan to supplement the country's military capacities with a
"private air force."
"The
aircraft offered in the proposal includes fixed-wing planes, attack
helicopters, and drones capable of providing close-air support to maneuvering
ground forces," the Military Times reported after viewing a
draft of the plan.
Prince's
plan also reportedly includes the use of "an iPhone application called
Safe Strike," which is presented as a "tool for air tactical
controllers to safely and accurately call in precision airstrikes or indirect
fire."