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Blackwater Founder Questions US Strategy on Afghanistan

Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is publicly touting a proposal to shake up the US military strategy in Afghanistan, CNN reported.
 
"There are a lot of people that say: ‘just pull out of Afghanistan’. I disagree with that because I think the Taliban or ISIS (Daesh) would raise their battle flag over the US Embassy in six months or a year," Prince said in an interview that aired on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Monday night.
 
"That's bad. But continuing the same way -- I would say insanity -- that we've been doing for the last 16 years, that has to change."
 
Instead, the former Navy SEAL and founder of the controversial defense contracting firm Academi, has proposed implementing a US viceroy in Afghanistan and increasing the number of government contractors on the ground.
 
"They'd be military employees of the Afghan government," Prince explained. "Imagine them as a skeletal structure that provides leadership, intelligence, medical, communications and logistics support to all those Afghan battalions so it works reliably."
 
Prince has penned op-eds for USA Today and the Wall Street Journal on the plan, in which he compared the proposal for restructuring of the war to” a bankruptcy reorganization."
 
Prince said some in the White House, including one of President Donald Trump's top advisers, Steve Bannon, and members of the National Security Council, are open to the strategy, along with others in Congress.
 
Prince’s comments follows his offer to step up the Afghan air war with a private air force capable of intelligence collection and close-air support, the Military Times reported.
 
A senior Afghan military official said that Prince had submitted a business proposal offering a “turn-key composite air wing” to help the fledgling Afghan air force in its fight against the Taliban and other militant groups.
 
The Price proposal comes as the White House is considering a plan to draw down the US involvement in Afghanistan and fill the ensuing power vacuum with contractors. 
But the Pentagon officials are sceptical of that plan.
 
The Afghan official said that Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, has refused to meet with Prince regarding the contractor plan.
 
Military Times has reached out to US military officials in Afghanistan for a comment on Nicholson’s meeting or lack thereof with Prince and have yet to receive a reply.
 
The Afghan air force is in the first stages of transition from its old fleet of Russian Mi-17 transport helicopters to US Black Hawks — a development Nicholson deemed as necessary to help break the stalemate in Afghanistan.
 
However, those Black Hawks won’t be arriving in Afghanistan for almost two years, and training isn’t expected to begin until later this fall, according to the report.
 
“President Ghani has told me he won’t accept it (the Prince plan),” former US ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005-2007 Ronald E. Neumann told Military Times in an interview. “Afghans will never accept this.”

Blackwater Founder Questions US Strategy on Afghanistan

Former Blackwater CEO warns if the foreign troops pull out from Afghanistan, the Taliban would raise their flag over US embassy in six months.

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Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is publicly touting a proposal to shake up the US military strategy in Afghanistan, CNN reported.
 
"There are a lot of people that say: ‘just pull out of Afghanistan’. I disagree with that because I think the Taliban or ISIS (Daesh) would raise their battle flag over the US Embassy in six months or a year," Prince said in an interview that aired on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Monday night.
 
"That's bad. But continuing the same way -- I would say insanity -- that we've been doing for the last 16 years, that has to change."
 
Instead, the former Navy SEAL and founder of the controversial defense contracting firm Academi, has proposed implementing a US viceroy in Afghanistan and increasing the number of government contractors on the ground.
 
"They'd be military employees of the Afghan government," Prince explained. "Imagine them as a skeletal structure that provides leadership, intelligence, medical, communications and logistics support to all those Afghan battalions so it works reliably."
 
Prince has penned op-eds for USA Today and the Wall Street Journal on the plan, in which he compared the proposal for restructuring of the war to” a bankruptcy reorganization."
 
Prince said some in the White House, including one of President Donald Trump's top advisers, Steve Bannon, and members of the National Security Council, are open to the strategy, along with others in Congress.
 
Prince’s comments follows his offer to step up the Afghan air war with a private air force capable of intelligence collection and close-air support, the Military Times reported.
 
A senior Afghan military official said that Prince had submitted a business proposal offering a “turn-key composite air wing” to help the fledgling Afghan air force in its fight against the Taliban and other militant groups.
 
The Price proposal comes as the White House is considering a plan to draw down the US involvement in Afghanistan and fill the ensuing power vacuum with contractors. 
But the Pentagon officials are sceptical of that plan.
 
The Afghan official said that Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, has refused to meet with Prince regarding the contractor plan.
 
Military Times has reached out to US military officials in Afghanistan for a comment on Nicholson’s meeting or lack thereof with Prince and have yet to receive a reply.
 
The Afghan air force is in the first stages of transition from its old fleet of Russian Mi-17 transport helicopters to US Black Hawks — a development Nicholson deemed as necessary to help break the stalemate in Afghanistan.
 
However, those Black Hawks won’t be arriving in Afghanistan for almost two years, and training isn’t expected to begin until later this fall, according to the report.
 
“President Ghani has told me he won’t accept it (the Prince plan),” former US ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005-2007 Ronald E. Neumann told Military Times in an interview. “Afghans will never accept this.”

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