The economic logic has driven the increasing dependency on mercenaries and private contractors ever since the beginning of the “war on terror” in 2001. First, a few statistical indicators: 75% of all western military personnel in Afghanistan are now private contractors. There are over 150,000 Pentagon-financed contractors in Afghanistan today. 2012 was the first year…
President Donald Trump’s pre-election pledge to end America’s useless wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan just might turn out to be somewhat less than what was promised if some political allies of the president have their way. For the past year there have been rumors circulating in Washington about the possibility of using mercenaries…
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is out. Mattis’ resignation comes amid news that President Donald Trump has directed the drawdown of 2,000 U.S. forces in Syria, and 7,000 U.S. forces from Afghanistan, a U.S. official confirmed to Military Times, a story first reported by the Wall Street Journal. This month, in the January/February print issue of the gun…
Alexander the Great couldn’t do it. Genghis Khan couldn’t do it. Neither could the British Empire nor NATO and the US military machine. But Erik Prince thinks he can stabilize Afghanistan with his latest mercenary empire? “I think it will make Erik Prince billions of dollars while he loses the war for us,” a congressional aide…
In California’s Mojave Desert last year, an American man wearing a helmet and body armour stood in front of a line of rifle-toting Emirati troops who were in the United States for military training. “My name is General Stephen A. Toumajan,” he tells the camera in a distinctly American accent, his thumbs gripping the sides…
Erik Prince, the brain behind the infamous private military firm Blackwater, is now in China training security forces. Prince is partially responsible for modernizing the private army for the post 9/11 world, outsourcing militaries to cheap, specialized labor pools and skirting traditional regulations meant to ensure accountability for armed forces. His journey from hiring mercenaries…
