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Blackwater Founder Pushes Privatization of US War in Afghanistan

P

Poetic.Injustice

Member
Nearly 16 years after U.S. forces entered Afghanistan, a shadowy figure from the past is making the rounds in Washington with a plan to end America's longest war.

Erik Prince, founder of the private security company Blackwater, has resurfaced as President Donald Trump mulls over what to do about a conflict that bedeviled his two predecessors in the White House.

Prince's plan for Afghanistan would start with the naming of an all-powerful American "viceroy" who would report to the president and play a role like that of General Douglas MacArthur in post-World War II Japan.

American troops, aside from a handful of special forces, would be replaced by a private army of around 5,500 contractors who would train Afghan soldiers and join them in the fight against the Taliban.

They would be backed by a 90-aircraft private air force.

And all at a cost of less than $10 billion dollars a year, as opposed to the $45 billion the United States is expected to spend in 2017 on its military presence in Afghanistan.

Prince, a 48-year-old former U.S. Navy SEAL, has kept a low profile since selling Blackwater in 2010 -- three years after some of his employees hired to protect U.S. diplomats killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad and wounded another 17.

He first outlined his Afghan proposal in an article for The Wall Street Journal in May. Since then, Prince, who currently heads Frontier Services Group, a Hong Kong-based security company, has met with U.S. officials here and made television appearances promoting his plan.

Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos is Trump's education secretary, says he has received a sympathetic hearing from the president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and some members of Congress but a chilly reception from the Pentagon.
Click to expand...

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/08/13/blackwater-founder-resurfaces-selling-afghan-plan.html

MGS4 anyone?
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
So, an actual mercenary company in vein of BattleTech and other fiction? Sure, mercs have existed and do exist currently, but not quite so blatantly.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
My favourite part was when the guy suggested that they could make an American version of the East India Company.

We colonizing the east, all over again!
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
We spend like a trillion dollars on the military why would we privatize it? How will they justify a military spending increase for next year?
 
T

Technosteve

Banned
all-powerful American "viceroy" who would report to the president and play a role like that of General Douglas MacArthur in post-World War II Japan.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif


We building empire now?
 
R

RinsFury

Member
Erik Prince is a vile piece of shit, infuriates me that this disgusting war criminal is allowed to walk around freely.
 
B

BadWolf

Member
First MGS2 starts ringing true after Trump gets elected and now it's sounding like it's time for MGS4.

Freaking Kojima.
 
N

nampad

Member
Does any PMC actually have an airforce with 90 aircraft or would they have to set that up? Former sounds pretty scary.

Also, he is the brother of Betsy DeVos?!
 
D

danm999

Member
Prince, a 48-year-old former U.S. Navy SEAL, has kept a low profile since selling Blackwater in 2010 -- three years after some of his employees hired to protect U.S. diplomats killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad and wounded another 17.
Click to expand...

So this guys goons commit mass murder and assault, he ghosts and now he's back wanting MORE power and responsibility?

This resume makes him unfit to run a tollbooth let alone a country.
 
B

Breakage

Member
I noticed he has another new name for his "security services" company. First it was Blackwater, then Xe, followed by Academi and now it's Frontier Resources Group.
 
K

Keasar

Member
War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID tagged soldiers carry ID tagged weapons, use ID tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored, and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war... becomes routine.
-Snake
 
R

RoyaleDuke

Banned
Interesting, I wonder if the subtext of some of what of Kojima said in MGS4 will come to pass in a way similar to MGS2.

The man is just too fucking prescient. Like holy shit.

He's right up there with Orwell and Huxley.

On topic, this sounds like a fucking bad idea that will only further destabilize the region and create more nightmares.
 
S

Snowybreak

Member
Keasar said:
War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID tagged soldiers carry ID tagged weapons, use ID tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored, and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war... becomes routine.
-Snake
Click to expand...

Literally the first thing that popped up in my mind. Damn Kojima.
 
Bolivar687

Bolivar687

Banned
This is also the same guy who, in addition to being Betsy DeVos' brother, allegedly met in Seychelles to set up a backchannel between Russia and the Trump administration.

The Preying Mantis PMC and opening chapter of MGS4 were actually based off of Blackwater and the atrocities they were responsible for in Iraq. Now they want to become the sensationalist satire their failures inspired.
 
U

Unknown Soldier

Member
Keasar said:
War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID tagged soldiers carry ID tagged weapons, use ID tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored, and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war... becomes routine.
-Snake
Click to expand...

Still one of the best game openings of all time.

Also, RIP David Hayter as Snake :(
 
K

Kin5290

Member
Jesus Christ, we're going to have Paul Bremmer 2.0, only this time he'll have a profit motive instead of only ideological ones for fucking up a country.
 
Z

Zenner

Member
Yeah, this guy was interviewed on NPR's KPCC a few weeks ago, talking about pushing this through. He's only doing it altruistically, of course!
/s He dodged so hard every question about whether he stands to personally profit from privatizing the war.
 
F

FreedomFighter

Member
Mercs would never agree to any Status of Forces Agreement, so there will be war crimes galore. Also notice the timing of this coincides with those Blackwater war criminals having their murder cases thrown out.
Technosteve said:
giphy.gif


We building empire now?
Click to expand...
You're decades late, brah.
ClosingADoor said:
So he wants to rob the nation of all its resources, while being paid for it. The hell is wrong with these people.
Click to expand...
Basically, screw neocolonialism, we're going back to overt colonialism.

Also, consider how expensive this will be. Paying for the military with billions of dollars of increased funding in deck and giving Eric 'Christian Crusaders' Prince massive amounts of taxpayer money to commit all types of abuses with absolutely no oversight.

This is crazy.
 
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