Blackwater founder Erik Prince proposes privatizing Afghanistan war

[docsherm]

This is very interesting.

President Trump has held off so far on approving strategy recommendations for the nearly 16-year war in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said this week, "To just say we're going to keep doing what we've been doing, the president is not willing to accept that."

The Trump administration is, however, considering a plan proposed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to privatize a large portion of the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. Prince's plan would send about 5,000 private military contractors to replace U.S. troops helping the Afghan army. Now executive director and chairman of Frontier Services Group, Prince said his plan would cut the annual cost of the war from an estimated $45 billion to less than $10 billion.

Full article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blackwat...fW9p9oMw%3D%3D

[titsonritz]

Return of the pipe hitters.

[Kain]

Anyone look at this and think of the movie War Inc.?

[Jellybean]

If anyone hasn't already heard of it, a site called Free Range Intl. has been beating this drum for years.

A couple recent articles:

http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=6995
http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=7135

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the situation in Afg. to say whether or not this is a valid idea, but he does seem to make some interesting points...
Of course even if it was the best idea since the printing press, the media will just continue to beat the twin horses of "bbbbut Blackwater" and "bbbbut Russia", so it will probably go nowhere anyway.

[TAZ]

Wow; just wow. Either Afghanistan, Syria...et al are true national security operations or they are not. If they are then have DOD run them. If they are nothing more that profiteering fit contractors then it's time to wrap it up.

Maybe, just maybe it don't make a hill beans of difference who's is pulling the trigger so long as it's managed like a shit show.

[SomeOtherGuy]

Anyone look at this and think of the movie War Inc.?

110% yes.

Where is Yanica?

[TMS951]

We just need to leave. War should not be privatized.

If our concern is the Taliban harboring terrorists we need to keep track of them and kill everyone involved when they do. We are really good at this.

What is futile is trying to keep the Taliban out of power, if the Afghans are not willing to do their part its not going to happen. If we are not trying to do this we don't need 'Boots on the ground'

The Afgan war is one that should be fought exclusively by JSOC and the Airforce

[SteyrAUG]

I'd rather invite Russia back to play.

[Coal Dragger]

Afghanistan has been a shit show since the beginning of recorded time.

We're not the first to try and pet the burning dog, and won't be the last. Time to cut bait and admit that trying to sell the Afghans on democracy does not work. They want to be primitive tribals, they want to have sex with goats, they want to sodomize their chai boys, they want to be illiterate, and they want to beat their women. Some will fight to the death if needs be to defend those ideals. They don't want or understand democracy, so they're not buying.

If we need to have our way with them militarily again we can, we're good at that. We suck at nation building in 3rd world shit holes. Maybe, just maybe 3rd world shit holes like Afghanistan are that way because those places are full of shitty people?

[PattonWasRight]

Wow, just wow.

We're outsourcing war.

I'm kinda' speechless at the moment.

EDIT - While we've used contractors extensively, this just smells like a way to say we're quitting without saying so.

I think we need to man up and say this conflict is not winnable. We win territory then lose it after we've moved onto some new territory to clear out.

We provide the Afghans intel and that's it.