The Pentagon has a message for Steve Bannon: Erik Prince has no place in any of America's wars.
The Blackwater founder and brother to Betsy DeVos was the topic of conversation among the State Department, military and CIA as a possible hire. The mercenary firm has a history of taking advantage of the U.S.'s overextension in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The Pentagon is not interested in privatizing the war in Afghanistan,” one former Pentagon official told The Daily Beast.
Prince has been the topic of conversation among the cable news shows after he was found to be yet another person connected to President Donald Trump's campaign who "accidently" met with Russians. However, Prince has no support among the Trump team, with the exception of Bannon.
However, companies like Blackwater don't do well when it comes to quality of work, according to Atlantic Council fellow Sean McFate.
Prince is “portraying this like all these forces are going to be ex-U.S. soldiers, and they’re not,” McFate explained to The Daily Beast. “They’re going to come from the Philippines or Ghana or El Salvador, where labor is cheap. They’re not a substantive replacement for U.S. troops training [foreign forces] on accountability or human rights. It’ll increase the chances of a Nisour Square tenfold or more with this so-called mercenary army.”
He believes a "viceroy," would help bring decision makers together. He likes it to being something like Trump’s favorite general Douglas MacArthur.
Bannon knows Prince from the Breitbart radio show, where he discussed "Islamic fascism." Prince's philosophy is in absolute contrast to Gen. H.R. McMaster, who heads Trump's national security team.
As the brother of Education Secretary DeVos, Prince raises another nepotism flag for the Trump White House.
