Tweet
Recent news in the states indicates that Trump has been listening a bit more to his own intuition against sustained US involvement and to Rand Paul who always viewed the war as a lost cause.
Two years ago reports began to surface that Erik Prince, the very religious founder of Blackwater who has viewed this phase of American interventionism abroad as a Crusade sorts, was lobbying Trump on his own plan.
Prince's sister is Betsy Devos, the Education secretary. The Prince-Devos ties helped fund Trump heavily in the Midwest and Michigan especially.
This combination of processes (Trumps recent meanderings back to his original views + Erik Prince's lobbying + recent reported US troop casualties due to insider attacks) makes me think that next step is going to be something worse in the eyes of all Afghans whatever their political persuasion:
Mercenary armies running amok + less nation building funding is going to be the new paradigm.
This slim profile of a privatized approach will make the war more palatable for most of the Euro-American public and probably satisfy the emerging (and surprising) unexpected republican critics of the war like Ann Coulter.
Basically, the technocrat Afghan emigres will begin to also find a funding squeeze going on and realize that they too have been had. The goal of the US will not be improved governance or a better Afghanistan but rather to fund a war industry that makes a few Americans (and maybe some Afghans) rather wealthy.
Afghanistan will be far less spoken of than it already is and be treated the way Colombia and other Latin American nations were in the last 2 decades (low intensity conflicts involving intelligence agencies and mercenaries and misery for most of the common people).
Exclusive: Blackwater founder's plan to privatise America’s $76bn, 17-year war in Afghanistan | The Independent
He will attempt to sell this to the Afghan government as a support force for their development and as a way to counter balance Pakistan buy eliminating the need for NATO supply routes through that country.
The Afghan government officials should do some serious thinking about the historical context Prince presents and the US history in Latin America and current destabilization going on there before embarking on this sort of agreement. Right now they rely on American largesse and this plan will dry that tap up and push some nasty Pinochet type of actors into power escalating the misery of democratic minded and resistance/insurgency minded actors as well.
So in summary, this is what is on the horizon and is probably going to be implemented for a decade plus but the Afghan elite should realize that this is a situation where saying NO is in the best interests of all Afghans including themselves. Perhaps the way to avoid it is threatening to rescind the SOFA agreement and then doing so if need be followed by forging stronger links to other regional and European powers if they still want to play the losing long game they (the Kabul émigré elites) currently are.
Two years ago reports began to surface that Erik Prince, the very religious founder of Blackwater who has viewed this phase of American interventionism abroad as a Crusade sorts, was lobbying Trump on his own plan.
Prince's sister is Betsy Devos, the Education secretary. The Prince-Devos ties helped fund Trump heavily in the Midwest and Michigan especially.
This combination of processes (Trumps recent meanderings back to his original views + Erik Prince's lobbying + recent reported US troop casualties due to insider attacks) makes me think that next step is going to be something worse in the eyes of all Afghans whatever their political persuasion:
Mercenary armies running amok + less nation building funding is going to be the new paradigm.
This slim profile of a privatized approach will make the war more palatable for most of the Euro-American public and probably satisfy the emerging (and surprising) unexpected republican critics of the war like Ann Coulter.
Basically, the technocrat Afghan emigres will begin to also find a funding squeeze going on and realize that they too have been had. The goal of the US will not be improved governance or a better Afghanistan but rather to fund a war industry that makes a few Americans (and maybe some Afghans) rather wealthy.
Afghanistan will be far less spoken of than it already is and be treated the way Colombia and other Latin American nations were in the last 2 decades (low intensity conflicts involving intelligence agencies and mercenaries and misery for most of the common people).
BC News reported that Prince hopes the new video reaches "decision makers."
“We have to get it right. Pulling out of Afghanistan is not the answer,” Prince said in the video. “A smaller more unconventional approach is necessary.”
“We have to get it right. Pulling out of Afghanistan is not the answer,” Prince said in the video. “A smaller more unconventional approach is necessary.”
Mr Prince, who insisted the meeting was purely by chance, said he has “no concern at all” about the probe, and has voluntarily given investigators access to his telephones and computers.
He remains, he said, focused on Afghanistan and wanted to give his project a historical context. There are British elements to that. His suggestion is that there should be a viceroy figure, as it was under the British Raj, who would command policy and budget and report directly to President Trump. This will prevent near constant changes in command and lack of continuity in policies, said Mr Prince.
He remains, he said, focused on Afghanistan and wanted to give his project a historical context. There are British elements to that. His suggestion is that there should be a viceroy figure, as it was under the British Raj, who would command policy and budget and report directly to President Trump. This will prevent near constant changes in command and lack of continuity in policies, said Mr Prince.
The Afghan government officials should do some serious thinking about the historical context Prince presents and the US history in Latin America and current destabilization going on there before embarking on this sort of agreement. Right now they rely on American largesse and this plan will dry that tap up and push some nasty Pinochet type of actors into power escalating the misery of democratic minded and resistance/insurgency minded actors as well.
So in summary, this is what is on the horizon and is probably going to be implemented for a decade plus but the Afghan elite should realize that this is a situation where saying NO is in the best interests of all Afghans including themselves. Perhaps the way to avoid it is threatening to rescind the SOFA agreement and then doing so if need be followed by forging stronger links to other regional and European powers if they still want to play the losing long game they (the Kabul émigré elites) currently are.
Comment