CNN’s Erin Burnett interviewed Erik Prince on OutFront today about the role Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner want Prince to play in Afghanistan.
Erik Prince (former owner of Blackwater) has offered a plan to “solve” the problem of the war in Afghanistan and Trump is listening.
Never mind that this plan blatantly offensive to the Congress, the military and to the Afghan government with his suggestion to replace the U.S.Military control with a Viceroy — a position to be filled by a U.S. citizen who will have control over the DOD, the CIA, the Military generals, the budget and much more and answer to no one but the president.
Erin Burnett interviewed Erik Prince about his plan for that future privatization which caught Trump’s eye (with help from Bannon and Kushner).
Below is the transcript of that CNN OutFront segment from August 8, 2017, (which begins at 30:08 in the above video) on Afghanistan. The interview with Prince begins at 33:06.regarding his “suggestions” for Afghanistan. The grammatical and conjunction errors are theirs, not typos.
Prince interview
Burnett: OutFront now, former Navy Seal, Erik Prince, who is the former CEO of the private military security company, Blackwater, now running a company called Frontier Services Group, and Erik, thanks, good to see you again.
You point out that the United States has had 17 Commanders in Afghanistan in 15 years. When you see that number in black and white, it is stunning.
Prince: Absolutely! There’s been no unity of Command and that’s just military commanders and that’s not counting Ambassadors and Chiefs of Station for the CIA that we’ve gone through.
Who’s really been in charge in Afghanistan? Nobody! It’s been extremely fragmented, we’ve had up to 140,000 troops in country and we’re now spending, the Pentagon consumes more than the entire defense budget of the U.K. just in Afghanistan and we’re losing.
Burnett: And you are proposing a solution and this...this… solution, uh, you’ve written about it in the WSJ op ed — a private military force...so, i know you don’t like the word “mercenary”, explain to me why it’s not the right word.
Prince: Cuz actually it wouldn’t, uh, what I’m rec...recommending is a rationalization — you still have 9000 U.S. troops and another 4000 NATO, um, they’re ...they’re ...they’re rotate every six to nine months so when those troopers leave, all the experience and local knowledge that they had leaves with them. There’s another 26,000 contractors in country. This plan takes it from that overspend down to a much smaller number.
The Afghan force needs support at the battalion levels. Battalion is the basic unit of combat there, that’s where the rubber meets the road and in the Afghans are continuing to lose dozens and dozens...thousands… uh… per month.
Um, embedding mentors at the battalion level, attaching to the Afghan army does not even meet the threshhold of the U.N. definition of mercenary, so they’re not even mercenaries.
Burnett: So, so…
Prince: So they are NOT mercenaries, they would be attached as long term trainer/advisors — imagine them as a stellar ...
Burnett: Are they military employees of the United States? or are they people that you’re .. they’re contractors
Prince: Nooo, they’d be military employees of the Afghan government. Imagine them as a struc.. as a skeletal structure that provides leadership, intelligence, medical, communications and logistics support to all those Afghan battalions so it works reliably.
Second, they need air power.
Less than 40% of the U.S. provided air power to the Afghan forces still even functions because the maintenance and training has been such a failure.
So, they need governance support, they need mentor support and they need air power…
Burnett: OK
Prince: ...attaching to the Afghan army, which doesn’t mean — you guys like to throw the mercenary word around, they’re not mercenaries...they’re
Burnett: But what are they if they’re being paid by the Afghan government or U.S. taxpayers or but they don’t work for the Pentagon?
Prince: under the U.N. law, NO, but they don’t NEED to… If we want to Afghanize this — this is the longest war in American history…
Burnett: Are they Americans?
Prince: They could be Americans, they could be foreign nationals, they could be NATO allies, there could be from the global soft community of professionals most of whom have served in that country already that have a lot of experience that wanna go back.
I mean, I’ve been in contact with... you know, remember, in the months after 9/11, a hundred CIA officers and a couple hundred special forces guys backed by air power crushed the taliban. The more we’ve gone to a conventional war with a conventional army, we have gone backwards. Every year since then.
They’ve surged up to 140,000 and as soon as they’ve pulled back, it fails again.
The reason I talked about in that Op Ed, you have to put someone in charge, there has to be a ... uh… uh… a lead federal official in this case almost a bankruptcy trustee that rationalizes the U.S. presence that is in charge of all policy.
Second, um, they have to stay there for a while so that you have continuity of decision making.
Burnett: OK. So, the word you use for that person was a “Viceroy” — an American Viceroy.
Prince: And I mean Viceroy — that’s a Colonial term…the last thing...
Burnett: It IS a Colonial term...
Prince: Sure...the Colonial term came from... in the...in the British Empire, they had very little communications and you had to put someone in charge that can make decisions absent a ship going back and forth. But in this case, it really means someone that can rationalize the basic mess that is U.S. policy been, whether it is in Afghanistan or Pakistan, we’re gone backwards…
Burnett: So, when you use the word, though, as you point out is a Colonial word, the definition is “a ruler exercising authority in a colony on behalf of a sovereign. “ [emphasis added].
In that case, Trump would, perhaps, be the sovereign, Afghanistan an American Colony? I mean, it’s a loaded word...have the Afghans…
Prince: I didn’t say that…
Burnett: Are they talking to you about this, are they open to it?
Prince: I’ve talked to...to plenty of Afghans about this. When they understand that we’re not there to colonize, but merely thuh thuh thuh that Viceroy, that lead federal official term is someone that will rationalize so we don’t go through a commander every year like we have been or a different ambassador every two years … or who it… there’s been a complete fragmentation of command. That has to change! [emphasis added]
Burnett: So, I know that...that you said, you said you wrote an Op Ed, Reince Priebus, H.R. McMaster, Steve Bannon then reached out to you…
Prince: Correct.
Burnett: ...and they wanted to hear more?
Prince: They wanted to hear more...and then, weeks later, they said, “OK, figure out what that actually costs, give us a ...give us a comparison” and so...ah.. rationalizing and going down to a true battalion level mentor program that supports the entire Afghan army — remember, the Afghan special forces works. There’s about 17,000 of them because they’ve been mentored by U.S. special forces in exactly the way I’m recommending.
They used to do village to village operations that worked really well — again, it was shut down by conventional army generals.
So, so mentoring the rest of the Afghan army in that same proven model works.
Second, giving them some air, give them some governance support so when the battalions order re-supply, they get their food, their fuel, their ammunition and parts on time, that’s what you need to keep the Afghan forces afloat. All the rest, that goes from $45 billion dollar spend this year, next year the Pentagon needs over $50 billion dollars — more than the entire U.K. defense budget — all that takes you down to less than ten.
Burnett: Less than ten is what you say it is going to cost.
Prince: Less than ten — $40 billion back to the Pentagon.
Burnett: So…
Prince: So, there’s, look… there’s a lot of people that say just pull out of Afghanistan? I disagree with that because I think the taliban or ISIS would raise their battle flag over the U.S. Embassy in six months to a year. That’s bad, but continuing the same, i would say, insanity that we’ve been doing for the last sixteen years has to change and I think the President is uncomfortable with that level, with that continuing on uh that course.
Burnett: Have you spoken to him?
Prince: I have not… nope.
Burnett: Oh, when you talk about H.R. McMaster, National Security Advisor, and Steve Bannon, are you still talking to them about these ideas?
Prince: The … ahhh… I would say Gen. McMaster does not like this idea because he is a… uh… he is a Three-Star conventional Army general and he is wedded to the idea that the U.S. Army is gonna solve this but I think for the present he’s got to say after 16 years, when do we...when do we try something different?
And...and...this, and this...here’s the thing, the U.S. isn’t doing anything below a corps level, right? That’s the highest unit of movement of the Afghan army — they’re not doing anything at the ground level of the Afghan army so this can operate there, can operate effectively and create the off ramp for the rest of the U.S. forces to leave — let’s be done! We’re still losing Americans. There was two American kids killed last week in the first 30 days of their deployment — enough!
Burnett: So, Steve Bannon is more receptive to this.
Prince: I think Steve Bannon and other folks even in the NSC and, um, and even quite a few in Congress.
Burnett: And quite a few in Congress. And General Nicholson, himself, have you spoken to him?
Prince: No.
Burnett: No. And this Viceroy, this person would be an American?
Prince: Again, Viceroy was the term only to describe the U.S. official, not a Colonial official, ok?
Burnett: But it would be a U.S., an American.
Prince: Absolutely. Yes, a...a...a...a...a government, a U.S...a U.S. government employee — call him a special envoy but they HAVE to control DOD policy and spending and rules of engagement and State Department authorities and CIA authorities — you have to combine so you don’t have interagency process doing nothing with a big com..commut...commun...uh … uh.. committee group think that accomplishes nothing. Sixteen years is a long time to be doing anything and we’re failing. [emphasis added]
Burnett: And, just to be clear, we’re talking about an American here that would at the top administering all of this…
Prince: In there — they would be in Kabul.
Burnett: Right, in Kabul…But you would...but the u.s….
Prince: Absolutely. No more 9 ½ times zones away...
Burnett: the less than $10 billion dollar would be paid for by American taxpayers but the people they are paying could be any nationality at all…right? Just to be clear...that I understand.
Prince: Look, well… $3 ½ billion already the Pentagon has slated to support the Afghan forces. That pays for their payroll, their vehicle parts, their fuel, all that. That...that continues — there would be a continued role for U.S. special operations forces, the 2000 or so that are already there… they continue on. This program can spool up underneath what the DOD is doing but this program can stay long term. It costs a fraction of what we are spending now… and the Pentagon can spend that money on reset but let’s figure out how to cauterize this endless bleeding that we’re have in Afghanistan.
Burnett: You know, obviously you have connections to Trump’s inner circle. You’re talking about that you were reached out to by Steve Bannon and, among others, your sister is ...
Prince: I… I… I did that, actually, I wrote that Op Ed because my wife and I, we have a lot of kids and some will serve in the military soon. The idea of them going to Afghanistan and getting killed like those kids did last year, I couldn’t tolerate, so I wrote that Op Ed with one audience in mind. The president read it and that’s what triggered this discussion.
Burnett: They said the president read it and..and… asked them to call.
Prince: I’m told the president read it at his desk, circled it and said, “Learn more about this...”
Burnett: So, he knows who you are and, obviously, as I said, it’s not just you know Steve Bannon and others, your sister is Betsy Devos who, of course, is Education Secretary…
Prince: That’s my big sister…
Burnett: So, let’s talk about another thing that you’re central to here. A lot has been made of a meeting that you had with a Russian who was close to Vladimir Putin on the remote island of the Seychelles during the Trump transition, right? This… this...meeting that everyone knows happened now, who from the Trump team asked you to take this meeting?
Prince: No one. Zero. I was there on business. ‘Kay? I was there meeting with Emirates officials and ...uh...there’s lots of other people there. I met a guy and...ah... clearly...ah...the U.S. intelligence community felt necessary to unmask me and leak it to the media … uh… but if…if... if...the media and the obsession on the Trump/Russian collusion...uh… they’ve kinda jumped the shark if they’re thinking I had something to do with that because this meeting occurred in January long after the election.
So, there’s either all this grand Trump collusion plan before the election or not, because if they ask me to go meet with some Russian, which no one actually did — I was happy to be there and...I...I...I met a Russian…
Burnett: Who’d you meet?
Prince: That’s pretty thin… Some fund manager, I can’t even remember his name…
Burnett: A fund manager, but you don’t remember his name…
Prince: I don’t remember his name. We didn’t exchange cards.
Burnett: How long was it? The meeting, do you remember?
Prince: [shrugs] Ahhhhhh…..it probably lasted about as long as one beer.
Burnett: So, it was … it was a casual setting.
Prince: Absolutely.
Burnett: Over beers. So let me just say why this meeting is getting so much attention cuz I know you’re minimizing it…but
Prince: But it’s really not…
Burnett: Well, it has been reported on extensively, let me just lay out the… lay out the timeline here, Erik, so everyone will understand cuz you know this but not everybody else does…
Ah, before this meeting happened between you and somebody who is a Putin confidant, and I know that from talking to people..uh...who know a lot about this meeting… so this person isn’t just a random Russian. In December the Washington Post reports you met with Trump transition officials in Trump Tower, right? Cuz you know people there, that makes complete sense.
That same month, I’m also aware there was a meeting at Trump tower between Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and the Crown Prince of Abudabi...uh….Sheik Mohamed ben Zayed.
In December, the Washington Post reports then you had a private meeting with Emirates Crown Prince, Mohamed ben Zayed. Then the meeting comes with the Russian in the Seychelles in January.
I know the Emirates delivered the Russian to the meeting. That’s why the question is so important. Whether you were working on behalf of the Trump team, or, even if they didn’t ask you, was anyone on the Trump team aware that you were at this meeting?
Prince: No one was aware from the Trump team that I was even there.
Burnett: No one was aware...
Prince: It was private business that had nothing to do with the U.S. government, it had nothing to do with the Trump team or the transition team or anything else.
Burnett: And what was the meeting about then…
Prince: Ah… future business… it’s that the Russian is someone the Emirates have done business with and said may be useful to you.
Burnett: And that was pretty much the extent of it…
Prince: That’s it.
Burnett: And, in terms of… you’re saying that it was all… when people talk about whether that was a possible back channel or anybody or all of that… you’re saying “no, off the table”.
Prince: Complete hogwash.
Burnett: All right, well, I appreciate it and I appreciate your answering our questions about it. Thank you. Erik Prince.
Prince: I’m amazed at the continued obsession with this when we have people dying in Afghanistan, Americans dying. Let’s find a way to cauterize the losses.
Burnett: All right, I appreciate it. Thank you.
[end of transcript]
Following Trump’s apparent frustration over complicated things… why would we expect any less reaction over something as complicated as military operations in a war that has stymied multiple presidents, the Russians and the French!
But, Trump — winning — deals — negotiator!
I am certain Prince would never turn down a position in the government as the Viceroy of Afghanistan, either! After all, that would make Trump… King!
