In a May 17 appearance on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, Prince made the case for an Afghan force managed by a contracting company on behalf of the US
The Atlantic: The 'Blackwater 2.0' Plan for Afghanistan
Private military contractors have spotted an opportunity as America’s longest war grinds on.
Here’s a crazy idea floating around Washington these days, outlandish even by today’s outlandish standards: The United States should hire a mercenary army to “fix” Afghanistan, a country where we’ve been at war since 2001, spending billions along the way. The big idea here is that they could extricate U.S. soldiers from this quagmire, and somehow solve it.
Not surprisingly, the private-military industry is behind this proposal. Erik D. Prince, a founder of the private military company Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, a billionaire financier who owns the giant military contractor DynCorp International, each see a role for themselves in this future. Their proposal was offered at the request of Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law, according to people briefed on the conversations.
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Previous Post: White House Asks Two Military Contractors To Help Form An Alternative Strategy For Afghanistan (July 11, 2017).
WNU Editor: Military contractors being responsible for nation building. Hmmmm .... why do I have doubts that it will work.
NO, NO, NO, NO, NO,! The people should regain their direct oversight of war making through Congress. There needs to be reformation of this. This just another name for mercenary employment. Yes, I know all about the history and ins and outs of the War Powers Act and subsequent Administration actions, it's time for all of this to stop and be brought back into it's original governmental slot.
ReplyDeleteThis is a major problem. ..I agree. .when companies profit too much from the aftermath of (foreign) war, they will for sure lobby for having that war in the first place. While direct lobbying for this is of course forbidden, there are many ways around it. The military industrial complex, traditionally, was focused on producing and supporting war efforts (ammunition, machines, computers, weapons, training etc)..and while this has lead to efficiencies, and many inventions, the downsides are perpetuos war and the wide spread of weaponry. Now, if on top there's another growing branche in the private sector that depends and profits from war (the aftermath cleanup and nation building, which might be just a big of, if not bigger number than the traditional industrial complex and far harder to define and control) we are in big, big, big trouble and it might mutate capitalism further into this uncontrollable beast it sometimes is. It will just accelerate the demise of nations and the rise of corporate conglomerates - some of which can already outspend small to mid sized nations (!!)
ReplyDeleteBecause sure only private companies would handle wars bad and start them for profit, no countries ever did so, no, wars previously just popped out like bacnes and we just had to deal with them. I do not say that they would do good, or even well, but the article above is more of focusing on the negative parts than what the possible positive outcome could be. It's just true hypocracy of saying ( the contractor in the article ) that his work as "raising small armies" in Africa is any different, than anyone else doing it no matter that is it for good or bad cause, because for you yourself, you will always stand on the good side. I kind of start to understand why Platon disliked the followers of Stoicism, and their self-deciding of what is good and what is not. But there is no need to worry, no viceroys will be put in place anywhere by POTUS, it's just not going to happen.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, this story just very much sound to me as if it would be about Jonathan Irons. For those of you who do not know who he is, he is just a fictianal character, in a videogame, and was played by the great Kevin Space, and in short he was a CEO of a private Military company, who turned against the free world. There is a short video of the game's CGI parts chained together, if you have some times, its worth a look, even just for glimpse for a possible future: https://youtu.be/3DRKpF9JaDM ( Between the parts there were some sameplay footage, which would help to understand the story, but with it it's a whole nigth movie. )
ReplyDeleteWow,
No You-tube video from James.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condottieri
They may have a plan. It might even work.
I am against mercenaries fighting your fights in principle.
Condottieris bought and sold cities. Two cities might pay 2 different armies to defend them and attack the city next door.
The opposing condottieri leaders would get together and decide, who would win and who would lose. Casualties were light. A few low level fighters dead 'showed' good faith efforts, but that is what it was, a show.
Everyone needs to be ready to fight and if they are the probably will not have to.
Capitalism cannot be mutated anymore than a hammer can.
ReplyDeleteIt is a tool.
Capitalism is what got us out of feudalism.
Cronyism is what is taking us back to feudalism, neo-feudalism.
If 100 countries rule North Korea, 900 rule China, there is an oligarchy behind Putin, and there is definitely a deep state power structure in Washington.
Smells a lot like feudalism.
I've seen a few games where the background setting was in the future with spaceships and such and where there was a feudal structure. I thought they were stupid. I thought that would not happen; it was all escapist fantasy. Now, I am not so sure.