Trump eyes plan to privatize war in Afghanistan

[Pauls' Revere]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/officials-worry-trump-may-back-erik-prince-plan-privatize-war-n901401

Prince's idea, which first surfaced last year during the president's Afghanistan strategy review, envisions replacing troops with private military contractors who would work for a special U.S. envoy for the war who would report directly to the president.

It has raised ethical and security concerns among senior military officials, key lawmakers and members of Trump's national security team. A year after Trump's strategy announcement, his advisers are worried his impatience with the Afghanistan conflict will cause him to seriously consider proposals like Prince's or abruptly order a complete U.S. withdrawal, officials said.


My question is:
Why would Blackwater ever want a war to end, that's just bad for business.

[Swordsmyth]

If it is a step towards ending it entirely it may be better than nothing but it would be better to just leave.

[spudea]

Why do you post false headlines? Here are the key quotes from the article:

"Prince said he hasn't spoken directly to Trump about the plan"
"No such proposal from Erik Prince is under consideration," the NSC spokesperson said.
"Mattis and Pompeo both oppose Prince's plan, officials said. A senior State Department official said there's "not a chance" it will be adopted."

[dannno]

My question is:
Why would Blackwater ever want a war to end, that's just bad for business.

The guy who founded blackwater is a studied Austrian Economist.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBTCVgZUuso

[Pauls' Revere]

Why do you post false headlines? Here are the key quotes from the article:

"Prince said he hasn't spoken directly to Trump about the plan"
"No such proposal from Erik Prince is under consideration," the NSC spokesperson said.
"Mattis and Pompeo both oppose Prince's plan, officials said. A senior State Department official said there's "not a chance" it will be adopted."


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/msn/trump-eyes-erik-prince-plan-to-privatize-us-war-in-afghanistan/ar-BBM3RWu

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is increasingly venting frustration to his national security team about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and showing renewed interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to privatize the war, current and former senior administration officials said.

In an interview with NBC News, Prince said he believes Trump advisers who oppose his plan are painting "as rosy a picture as they can" of the situation on the ground, including that "peace is around the corner" with recent U.S. efforts for peace talks with the Taliban. He said he believes Trump's advisers "over-emphasize the fluff and flare of these so-called peace talks."

Prince, a staunch Trump supporter whose sister is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, argues that after 17 years of war in Afghanistan, it's time for the U.S. to try something new.

Prince said he hasn't spoken directly to Trump about the plan, but told NBC News he plans to launch an aggressive media "air campaign" in coming days to try to get the president to embrace it.


Prince said he hopes to speak in coming days with some officials on the National Security Council about his proposal. He said that while last year he discussed it with Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when Pompeo was CIA director, he has not spoken to John Bolton, who become Trump's third national security adviser in April.

Prince was not an official adviser to the Trump campaign but donated $250,000 to pro-Trump causes during the campaign and met with members of Trump's national security team during the transition. The Washington Post reported that special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether Prince tried to establish a backchannel between Russia and the Trump administration during a meeting with a Putin associate in the Seychelles in 2017.

When Prince's plan had Trump's attention in 2017, it had the backing of his former strategist Steve Bannon and the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.

The plan appealed to Trump because of the promise that it would be less expensive and put fewer American troops at risk than the current U.S. strategy.

It calls for private contractors and aircraft to aid Afghan forces, with some help from the CIA and the Pentagon's special operations forces — all of whom would be overseen by a U.S. government envoy for Afghanistan policy who reports directly to the president and is given the authority to coordinate with the Afghan government.

[Pauls' Revere]

Prince, a staunch Trump supporter whose sister is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, argues that after 17 years of war in Afghanistan, it's time for the U.S. to try something new.

[kcchiefs6465]

The guy who founded blackwater is a studied Austrian Economist.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBTCVgZUuso
Should Erik Prince be criminally prosecuted for Nisour Square?

[Anti Globalist]

End the war in Afghanistan.

[Aratus]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/officials-worry-trump-may-back-erik-prince-plan-privatize-war-n901401

My question is:
Why would Blackwater ever want a war to end, that's just bad for business.


Afghanistan does not have a port on the Atlantic Ocean.

[kcchiefs6465]

The guy who founded blackwater is a studied Austrian Economist.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBTCVgZUuso
After watching the video, where is your claim that Erik Prince is a studied Austrian Economist coming from (absent Stefan Molyneux's assertion that he studied Austrian Economics in school)?

A couple more thoughts on the matter:
Erik Prince's disconnect that the meddling in Middle Eastern politics and carving out of land over the last 100 years has anything to do with instability in the region is probably tied to the loss of men employed by Blackwater and the idea that the mission was a moral one. He cannot reconcile the impact his actions have had with morality (or he is an evil person).

He speaks about Houthi insurgency firing Surface to Surface missiles at US Battleships (yet doesn't mention the politics of Yemen or the US intervention in Yemen or even the fact that the US should not be there).

He talks about terror cells in the Middle East arising in the power vacuum created by withdrawing troops in Iraq (doesn't acknowledge that Nisour Square, for example, created and will continue to create terror cells in the region or the fact that this vacuum was created by an unjust war).

Stefan Molyneux should interview Michael Hayden next. We can have a drawn out, cognitively disconnected discussion of why everyone should be surveilled at all time. I'm sure he would be licking his lips to underhand softball questions to another champion of markets.

[dannno]

After watching the video, where is your claim that Erik Prince is a studied Austrian Economist coming from (absent Stefan Molyneux's assertion that he studied Austrian Economics in school)?


“The thing that truly appealed to me about Hillsdale was its focus on libertarian, free-market economics.” It was there that, as an economics and political science minor, Prince learned the economics of the Austrian School which, in his words, “lionizes long-term laissez-faire policies without government intervention.” Hillsdale, like Grove City College, which also teaches Austrian economics, is one of the few colleges which does not accept government money.

https://mises.org/wire/taxpayer-funded-mercenaries-are-not-private-sector

I'm not a big Erik Prince fan, I don't think Molyneux is a particularly big fan either, but he did give him a platform and an interview. This was more of a jus' sayin.

[kcchiefs6465]

https://mises.org/wire/taxpayer-funded-mercenaries-are-not-private-sector

I'm not a big Erik Prince fan, I don't think Molyneux is a particularly big fan either, but he did give him a platform and an interview. This was more of a jus' sayin.
A big take away from the article you posted (after eviscerating Prince's claim of Austrian Economic influence):


A true innovator and entrepreneur in the field of security and defense is Cody Wilson, the inventor of the 3-D printable gun.

ETA: And now that you posted that, I faintly remember his comments. If you can find the thread of it here, you will probably find me in it, mocking his comments, documenting different charges of crimes against him, etc.

He is an Austrian influenced free market entrepreneur much the way Newt Gingrich is a libertarian.

[dannno]

A big take away from the article you posted (after eviscerating Prince's claim of Austrian Economic influence):

Ya, I would contribute to a gofundme for Cody Wilson, not Erik Prince. I agree the idea that the government funding private enterprises is not free enterprise. But he does have some bent toward that concept and did study it.