US President Donald Trump’s impatience with the cost and duration of the US war in Afghanistan has reportedly renewed his interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to turn the mission over to private security service companies.
And so, NBC News reports, Trump is considering a plan to privatize the whole damn thing. The move, pushed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, would replace soldiers with mercenaries working for a “viceroy” who reports directly to Trump.
“I know he’s frustrated,” Prince told NBC News on the one-year anniversary of Trump’s reluctant approval of a troop increase in Afghanistan. “He gave the Pentagon what they wanted … And they haven’t delivered.”
Prince said he’s soon to embark on a public push to get Trump to embrace his plan, which he first pitched Trump last summer with a PowerPoint presentation. Now, some of Trump’s “advisers” fear that his impatience with the lack of progress in Afghanistan “will cause him to seriously consider proposals like Prince’s,” NBC News reports.
Apparently, Trump’s renewed interest of the privatization plan came after he saw a video of Prince, whose sister is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, arguing that his plan is more economical. It’s not a new line for him. Last year, Prince said his plan would cost $10 billion, significantly less than the $40 billion the Pentagon budgeted for the war.
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