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Afghan officials reject push to privatize war
Afghan officials have rejected a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to have his private military contracting company take over the training and advising of the Afghan armed forces.
Prince lobbied several Afghan politicians on a recent trip to the country and has been discussing his proposal to privatize parts of the U.S. military mission in the country for over a year, according to Reuters.
But Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has repeatedly dismissed the idea. "Under no circumstances will the Afghan government and people allow the counterterrorism fight to become a private, for-profit business," Ghani's national security adviser said in a statement to Reuters Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has also rejected the proposal, saying in August, "When Americans put their nation's credibility on the line, privatizing it is probably not a wise idea."
See also: The Last Americans Fighting in Afghanistan
17 years later, Americans tend to consider Afghanistan a failure
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday October 07 2018, @01:51PM (4 children)
One of the things to come out of the investigation of Fallujah: Erik Prince views himself and his company as modern day Christian crusaders out to kill every Muslim they can [economist.com]. That not only is bad from the "genocide is wrong" department, it's also bad from the strategic and operational goals that US commanders have: Having those kinds of loose cannons around only helps the propaganda efforts of the Taliban and ISIS and other unpleasant people.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday October 07 2018, @05:13PM (3 children)
And yet Erik's headquarters are in Dubai. You'd think they'd be opposed to having an open Crusader living in their midst.
I believe that this is seriously being considered because nobody (other than illegal Mexicans looking for easy citizenship) is going to enlist until we get the real stories of events like 9/11 and Vegas, and also due to the fact that thanks to the internet everybody knows modern hot-wars are bullshit. The American population will have zero tolerance for a draft and they will openly revolt, maybe moreso than in the Vietnam days.
Modern wars are mostly fought economically and culturally, with some occasional proxy clashes like Syria and Yemen. The Chicoms really did a number on our culture by exerting soft-money influence toward our entire educational system. The real story with election influence was not Russia, but China, and you bet your ass the Chicoms are handling Dianne ("Fifth-Columnist") Feinstein and all of the other Democrat psychos all the way up to Hillary herself.
Trump can fix this. He can drain the swamp and rebuild the public's trust in government, so that Americans will once again be proud to volunteer to serve in the military.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07 2018, @06:05PM (2 children)
I see you are back and crazier than ever.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday October 07 2018, @10:41PM (1 child)
Come on now A/C, that rant is hilarious. Ethanol-fueled is back baby, and funnier than ever.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday October 07 2018, @11:25PM
It would be funny if it wasn't playing the latest tune emanating from the White House [twitter.com] playing the 'loyalty to Trump' chorus. The only way Trump can stand long enough is to create crises he can blame others for them. See, it isn't Trump's fault the Chinese retaliated with taxes in the trade war, they are doing it to bring down the great American leader.
Put this together with the 'Presidential alert' - Tweeter does not carry the 'legitimacy' mark and it's too noisy for spreading 'legit fear'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford