Erik Prince takes one last desperate shot at cashing in on Donald Trump
With so much corruption in Donald Trump’s illegitimate administration, it is difficult to keep up with each emerging controversy. Prior to his dismissal as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt racked up an impressive number of scandals. Because of the high number of indignities and criminal violations playing out, some individuals have been able to escape the primary spotlight. While Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been called out for stripping protections from a number of students, while also advancing policies to personally profit her family, the scrutiny against her is much less than it would be in a normal administration.
Devos’ brother, Erik Prince, must believe that his connections to Trump allow him to join in on the fleecing of America. Prince is a former Navy SEAL and founder of Blackwater (now known as Academi), a mercenary group of militants who received notoriety in 2007 when some of the soldiers were convicted of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. With Trump’s time in power running out, Prince is looking to utilize his connections now to score one final big payday. He has been pushing Trump to pull the United States military from Afghanistan in favor of his mercenaries, and leave American taxpayers with the bill. As you might have guessed, people are questioning the viability of a small group of paid killers replacing the U.S. Army.
On Friday’s episode of Andrea Mitchell Report on MSNBC, Mitchell shared some thoughts on Prince from Sean McFate, who works at the National Defense University: “Prince is an amateur and makes rookie mistakes, which is probably why the generals laughed at him. Somehow, he believes 6,000 mercenaries and a small Air Force can solve Afghanistan’s problems. This is magical thinking: NATO could not succeed with 140,000 troops eight years ago, when the Taliban was in retreat.”
When Mitchell asked Prince how much it would cost taxpayers for his group of mercenaries to replace US military, he pegged the price tag at $3.5 billion. When Mitchell pressed him on how it would work, Prince stated, “Every special forces officer I talked to, if you ask them honestly, will say that is the approach that works. They may not like my plan specifically, but small and unconventional and living with and working with the Afghans is the only way to do it.”
However, during the interview, Prince seemed to promote his group’s work to attack the government of Afghanistan, while also saying we need to help that same government. “If we really, as the United States, want to stand up to the Afghan government as a sovereign force,” we must use his mercenaries, Prince stated. He followed that up by saying we can be successful “If we believe in empowering the Afghans, putting contractors that live with, train with, and fight with their Afghan counterparts, under Afghan rules of engagement.”
While Prince continued to change the subject, Mitchell was able to ask about his efforts to create a backchannel between Trump and Putin. “Let me ask you about your own record. We know about Blackwater. You’ve been questioned by the Mueller team, you testified to the House Intelligence Committee about this meeting about, this issue being raised, whether or not you, during the transition, just before the inaugural, were meeting in the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean, with a prominent Russian connected to Vladimir Putin, whether this was a backchannel.”
Erik Prince refused to answer, other than saying that the House investigation transcript has been released and that people can read it. Mitchell also asked, with Steve Bannon no longer in Trump’s administration, who is pushing Prince’s message? Instead of answering, Prince changed the subject to talk about how cheap his deal would be to America. It is clear that Prince knows his window for receiving a big U.S. government contract is running out and will end when Trump is removed from power.
I’m a ceramic engineer living in Central New York, avid sports fan but find myself more interested in politics lately.