"The Afghanistan issue" is one of the most important topics discussed among U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump wants a new strategy, while the Defense Department is requesting reinforcement units. Trump thinks the U.S. has lost in Afghanistan. Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka from the neo-nationalist faction also agree with Trump. A comprehensive report on this strategy should have been completed in mid-July. But there is no report yet.
The occupation the U.S. has maintained for 16 years is also on the agenda of the American media. It is stated that the U.S. could not achieve their targets in Afghanistan, although financial loss reached trillions of dollars, more than 2,000 soldiers died and more than 20,000 were injured. This issue is also the cause of the conflict between globalists and the neo-nationalists in the White House. According to information leaked to the media, at a recent meeting discussing Afghanistan, Trump's Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster had a very heated debate.
Meanwhile, Erik Prince, the former founder of Blackwater, a private security company that fell into disrepute after the invasion of Iraq, is on the scene. Prince, who appears linked to the neo-nationalist wing in the White House, is also the brother of Trump's Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Christian right-winged DeVos does not think much of public schools and advocates that education should be privatized and integrated into free market conditions. DeVos is also very close to the conservative billionaire Koch family.
According to news reports, Prince and Steve Feinberg, the boss of military contracting company DynCorp, met Trump and his advisors in July. Let it be remembered that Feinberg is a major donor of Trump's election campaign. During the meeting, Prince proposed for the urgent privatization of U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan.
The proposal had broad repercussions in the media. It is said that Prince proposed the American version of the East India Company which dominated India with special military units for about 250 years, and that "Prince wants to become the governor general of Afghanistan.” Trump's son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, also supports Prince's proposal. However, National Security Adviser McMaster and Secretary of Defense James Mattis were not prone to the idea.
Prince argues that the proposed model will allow American taxpayers to save more than $40 billion. On the other hand, it is suggested that Prince and Feinberg advised Trump that the U.S. should have a say in the mines of Afghanistan. Reportedly, Trump and his neo-nationalist advisors met Michael Silver, the head of the famous chemistry company American Elements, to research the potential of Afghan mines.
In a news report published in the alternative right-wing publication Breitbart News, Bannon's ally Sebastian Gorka was quoted as saying, "We want to start from scratch for the Afghanistan strategy." Gorka stressed that they will act in accordance with the U.S.’s national interests in Afghanistan and ask Afghan allies to act in accordance with their common interests, otherwise they will not deploy American troops to the front.
Prince's proposal has been both supported and criticized by American media. Skip Shelton, one of the diplomats who served in Afghanistan, argued in his Small Wars Journal piece that Prince's proposal was not a good option, saying, "Although privatization is the best in some areas, war in Afghanistan is definitely not one of them."
It appears that, as in many other topics, the settlement of the Afghanistan issue depends on the course of the ongoing civil war between globalists and neo-nationalists.
