US military contractor Erik Prince has advised the administration of President Donald Trump to deploy Western mercenaries to Afghanistan to save both manpower and money.
Prince, who founded the notorious private military company Blackwater USA, now called Academi, has proposed a two-year plan for about 5,000 professional killers and under 100 aircraft, bringing the total cost of the failing US war to less than $10 billion a year, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.
Prince, a former Navy Seal, said on current spending, the Afghan military campaign would cost the US $45 billion this year and $50 billion the next.
“We’re spending too much in Afghanistan and it’s making the insurgency worse, through corruption and leakage to the Taliban,” the former Navy Seal told the newspaper.
“I then heard about a big troop surge [proposal] and I thought that was a dumb idea . . . I’m going to contract everything; I’m…