President Donald Trump's advisers recruited two businessmen, who reportedly profited from military contracting, to draw up alternate plans to that of sending in thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan, reported the New York Times on Tuesday.

This was a reflection of Trump’s struggle to define a new strategy to deal with the 16-year-old war, the New York Times stated.

According to the report, Erik D. Prince, a founder of private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, who owns the giant military contractor DynCorp International, reportedly discussed the issue of relying on contractors instead of U.S troops with Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

New York Times reported that U.S Defense Secretary James Mattis listened to their outline but declined to include their strategies in his review of the Afghanistan policy.

In June, Trump authorized the Pentagon to draw up a new war strategy and to send in additional troops. However, no announcement has yet been made regarding the final tally.

However, some critics have questioned whether the increase of a few thousand troops will make much difference.