Donald Trump plans to outsource the war in Afghanistan to mercenaries who have a legacy of killing civilians and utilizing torture while being paid off by the U.S. government.
Donald Trump plans to outsource a huge portion of the ongoing war in Afghanistan to mercenary groups like Blackwater, the company founded by Erik Prince — brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — and which has a reputation for killing and torturing civilians across the world in profit-generating operations.
After speaking to Prince himself, USA Today reports that the Trump plan would send 5,500 mercenaries to Afghanistan, including a 90-plane private air force to support their operations in the region.
They also report that the senior Trump advisers with military experience, including National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster — a three-star general — and Defense Secretary and four-star general James Mattis, have “misgivings” about the plan, which is being championed by white supremacist Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist.
The announcement comes after recent reports of a Trump meltdown in the Situation Room of the White House, where he screamed at military leaders for failing to implement a winning strategy in Afghanistan. Trump, who is currently — ostensibly — commander-in-chief, previously bragged about his genius at devising military tactics that would make America “win.”
Prince’s Blackwater came to prominence after former President George W. Bush gave the company over $1 billion in tax dollars to provide “private security” during U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The use of mercenaries to avoid the legal ramifications of engaging in torture and murder abroad came to light when Bush outsourced these missions to Blackwater.
Blackwater personnel played a key role in the horrific Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad in 2007, where 17 civilians were killed after they fired machine guns and grenade launchers into an unarmed crowd at a traffic junction.
Prince rebranded the company and then sold his stake, but he has resurfaced in the Trump era, and in familiar fashion: Prince met with a confidante of Vladimir Putin to setup a backchannel of communications between the Putin regime and Trump during the presidential transition period.
If Trump goes all-in with Blackwater and Prince, he would be enriching the family of one of his major donors, while continuing the Bush legacy of sullying America’s name around the world with this ill-fated approach to military strategy.
#1: misterwhite To: Willie Green (#0)
If the entire U.S. military can't do the job, Trump will send in some no-holds-barred mecenaries. And if he does that, the military won't be needing those extra billion of dollars Trump promised them.
misterwhite posted on 2017-08-08 19:47:20 Reply Private Reply
#2: rlk To: Willie Green (#0)
I doubt that Blackwater et al have the training or capability to complete the task.
rlk posted on 2017-08-08 22:06:42 Reply Private Reply
#3: paraclete To: misterwhite (#1)
Has nothing been learned? There is no winning strategy short of reducing the country to rubble and maybe not even then. The insurgency exists because foreign troops exist, they are an affront to the Muslims in Afghanistan and are backed by Pakistan, a muslim nation with aspirations. No pakistani government will admit their complicity, but the insurgency insures that american funding will continue. They will bleed america dry and produce no result, leave now and let the pakistani's fight their war
paraclete posted on 2017-08-09 02:09:12 Reply Private Reply
#4: A Pole To: misterwhite (#1)
It depends what is the objective.
A Pole posted on 2017-08-09 05:44:10 Reply Private Reply