WEBVTT - Part Two: Blackwater's Erik Prince Wrote A Book About How Much He Sucks 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:08.280 M Hi everybody. I'm Robert Evans and this is again 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:10.719 Behind the Bastards. Uh. This is part two of our 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:13.760 of our episode on Eric Prince, and with me in 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.760 the studio today is Miles, how are you doing. I'm good, 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.400 I am great, and I'm just I'm itching to know 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:23.000 more about Eric Prince because the first round, first episode, 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:25.320 first part, which was like six months ago. Yeah, but 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.440 I still remember most of it, and I it's it's 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.720 a testament to the American spirit. That's a thing. It's 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.320 a testament to that, among other things. It's a testament 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.800 to being born with hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah, 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.479 testament to all of that stuff. Well, what have you 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.400 been up to in the last six months? Last six months? 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.639 I don't really care. What's your guess as to what 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.040 Eric Prince has been getting up to. I'm going to 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:51.560 if I'm a bet gambling man and I like to gamble, 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:53.479 I'll go with a safe bet and I'm just gonna say, 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.360 crimes against humanity, just in general, war crimes, yes, I mean, okay, 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:02.000 well absolutely has he has been a part of some 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.240 more crimes that have been committed recently, which we'll talk 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.760 about later. But more interestingly, I guess I should be 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:09.840 more pointed. Do you want to guess as to what 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.240 Erik Prince has bought since you and I talked? Okay, 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.640 so last time he tried to make that his homemade 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.640 fucking fighters yet Yeah, and that went did not work 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:22.759 out well. Uh so what's easier? Probably boats? I mean, 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.440 I knowing how Betsy Devas loves her yachts, it only 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.679 makes sense that brother Eric is gonna be like, let 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.120 me turn this ship up. Just within the last few 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.280 weeks he purchased or we'll get into what he did later, 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.320 but he basically purchased quote, three high speed catamarans armed 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.480 with electronically aimed and fired machine guns and cannon, three 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.679 trimarans armed with heavy machine guns and cannon, and drones 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.680 which could be armed. They are equipped with military grade 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.800 surveillance radars and high speed, semi rigid inflatable boats that 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.160 can be used to launch commandos and boarding parties from 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.760 the larger ships. Wow, what was the second kind of 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.120 boat you said? Trimaran. It's just it's a boat of 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.400 some sort and it has a lot of guns on it. Right, 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.240 I don't know much about boats, but he bought two 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.480 different kinds of boats with a shiploaded guns on them. 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.200 Can you show me a picture of a catamaran and 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:12.280 a trimaran, Sophie, perfect, just so I can wrap my 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:15.000 head around, because what's it Isn't a catamar ran? Like 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:16.680 when I think of a cataman, I don't think of 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.600 like a warfaring boat. I assume there are arms. I 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.600 mean I think by a basic broader definition, it's like 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:25.840 a type of boat and they just armored this one 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.800 and put some guns on it. Yeah, yeah, Eric, Yeah, 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.519 so Eric Prince has a okay, so it is the 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.040 thing with like the three okay, because yeah, the catamaran 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:36.600 is like the two piece thing where you see people. 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.560 It's like we're in Santrope and I'm laying on this 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:42.040 net in between. It's the boat equivalent of those spaceships 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:47.400 in Cloud City and thanks. Yeah. Yeah, it's like that, right, 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.480 I think, Uh, which is so funny, Like it's still 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.520 very like waspy, like old money, like a catamaran except 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.840 for war. Yeah. Well he in a little bit of 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.239 defense to Eric. He didn't he didn't just go buying 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:04.280 armed catama and he bought the navy of Mozambique uh yeah, 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.399 yeah great rates over there. Well, yes, because their their 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.120 economy collapsed recently because their entire country got taken in 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:15.160 by a giant con scam thing. Basically, they wanted to 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.839 modernize their tuna harvesting fleet and needed like a loan 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.320 for eight hundred million dollars right, which they got in 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.760 which the people of Mozambique were like, yeah, sure, modernize 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.200 the tuna harvesting fleet, will all make more money. But 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.840 the government, working with shadowy foreign interests, secretly took out 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.000 an extra one point two billion dollars in loans that 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:32.840 they used to buy a navy, and they lied about 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:37.000 it and so an extra one So the first thing 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.640 is we need eight hundred million for the tuna. They're like, 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:42.840 you know, it's a it's a sea bound nation. But 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.920 you buy then you secretly borrow even more than what 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.920 you buy a navy. What the fuck? Okay, So they 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.840 bought this navy secretly and then and lied about it. 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:54.880 And but once they bought it, they'd spent all of 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:56.760 their money, so they didn't have enough money to man 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.520 the navy, which they were planning to. They were planning 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.720 to leave the navy to a private corporation that would 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.600 then basically be a for profit navy based in Mozambique. 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:11.320 So the shipping Airbnb their fucking that was the plan. Yeah, 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.840 just like getting the black on this thing. But they 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.000 just didn't. They couldn't actually run the navy, and the 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.320 whole venture sort of collapsed and somehow Eric Prince wound 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.440 up in control of it. Now it's weird because the 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:27.760 first source I found that from was a website that's 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.560 new to me called Spiked News, which builds itself as 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:32.520 an outli for stories that have been buried or crushed 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:34.800 by the daily median noise. So I was a little 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.240 bit like, is this some fake news bullshit? So I 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.920 looked around and I was able to find other sources 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.000 on the article that were a little bit less direct 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.400 than Spiked had been, but said basically the same thing. 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.080 I'm going a quote from this Bloomberg article called Eric 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.960 Prince to partner with Mozambiques hidden debt companies, which that 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.880 sounds above board hidden debt companies, isn't. One of those 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.440 are the companies that helped members of the government of 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.279 Mozambique take on more loans in the count it could 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.599 afford just then bankrupted the nation. Yeah, hidden debt company 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.040 will always sound terrible to make this. Yeah, and these 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.600 are the people Eric is working with. So Blackwater Security 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.440 founder Eric Prince will partner with at least one of 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.840 the state owned Mozambican companies at the center of a 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.400 hidden loan scandal that resulted in the country defaulting on 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:17.680 its death this year. Prince, chairman of the Hong Kong 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.200 based Frontier Services Group, is forming a joint venture with 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.360 the Tuna Fishing Company and Mattam and may extend this 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:29.120 to assisting the Southeast African nation with maritime security. I 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.880 wonder if Eric Prince has a navy now it sounds 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.040 like sounds like renting as a navy now, Yeah, at 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.880 least renting and exactly He's like, I don't want to 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.040 go that. I'm not doing that. Well, I'm I'm renting, 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.400 I'm leasing a navy and he's he's doing some counter 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:44.640 terrorism stuff for the country. So it sounds like he 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:50.960 has found a country whatever that Yeah, he's he's doing 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.320 something shady and Mozambian as a navy. So that's good, 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.200 that's really nice. Yeah. Um, anyway, we're all caught up. 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.719 Other than the buttfuck he bought it. It's like we 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.120 bought a Sue but with war machine. I know he 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:09.760 bought a catamaran, a trim Ran with no. Six of them, 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.080 and plus drones, blessed little skiffs, so you can you 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.159 can just have boarding camards because Eric print should have 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:19.760 more commandos. It worked well. The last the bodies part 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.640 he can figure out. It's the getting around the international 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.640 laws that prohibit private people from owning military hardware. He's 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:31.720 a master. Yeah, he's he's really is. He's like, he's focused. 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.400 He's focused. If anything, this is a man who said 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.760 I will have some kind of my own military army. 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.080 I want my own military's right, And he's got he's 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.120 got his, he's got his ground gooms. He's got the 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.440 ground game worked out. Now he wanted. He couldn't couldn't 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.360 figure out the skies. Now take him to the sea. Yep, yep. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:50.880 So he's he's in the sea. Yeah, and that's uh, 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.280 that's where Prince is now. So now that we're all 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:54.880 caught up, I would like to talk to you about 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.200 the book that I just read this week. It's called 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.800 Civilian Warriors, The Inside Story of Blackwater and the unsung 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.760 heroes of the War on Terror. First of all, based 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.520 on everything we're talking about last time to cause some 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:11.800 of these people, well, the people who saw their heroics 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.239 couldn't sing because they were too busy screaming, right because 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.120 Blackwater was firing grenades into a crowd, and they're like, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.160 I'm sorry, man, I haven't I haven't let this thing 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.600 off all day. So obviously the author of that book 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.560 is Eric Prince, um well, and some other guy. Clearly 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.520 Eric Prince outlined it and some other dude filled out 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.720 the writing, right, whoever the ghostwriters, he's credited as the author. 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.720 It's exactly the kind of self serving autobiography you would 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.400 expect from a billionaire whose companies companies have been tied 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.880 to more war crimes than several s S battalions. Um So, 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.480 let's just dive into the introduction. This gives Eric a 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:48.160 chance to lay out his beliefs on the War on 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.679 Terror in brief. So, yeah, Western governments continue to struggle 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.240 to find real solutions to these crises. They have spent 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.040 trillions of dollars during that Cold War preparing the mightiest 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.800 of hammers. But when you have a magnificent hammer, everything 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.600 looks like a nail. So this is the problem. He's 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:07.640 accurately identified the problem the US military has with counterinsurgence, right, 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.800 because we do have a really great hammer, and we're 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:14.000 not dealing with nail problems. You get a penis implant 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.080 and you're like, how do I not funk with this? Yeah, 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.040 but then you wind up in the wall of penis, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:24.880 hall of penises, and so your penis is just useless. Yeah, Yes, 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.800 that's the situation. That's a fine analogy to the current 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.679 military strategy and everything is phallic. Yeah, it's it's funny 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.640 to me that he's he's diagnosing the shortcoming and attributing 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:38.400 it to the U. S. Military that their problem is 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:40.160 that they have a great hammer and so everything looks 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:41.920 like a nail, because all Eric has ever done in 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.680 his entire life is build hammers um But he he 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.319 seems to think that what his people do is different 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.280 and more suited to the war on Terror than what 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.240 the U. S. Military does because they don't have rules. 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.439 The hammer of traditional forces lacks the nimbleness and fiscal 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.400 efficiency either small active duty units are contracted special forces. 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.840 Even more troubling, traditional forces can inflame the situation instead 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:11.679 of pacifying it, instead of pacifying, instead of pacifying it. 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.240 What colorful language that, Yeah, and I love it because 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.479 if there's one thing Blackwater absolutely has done everywhere it's operated, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:24.200 it's inflamed the situation, pified it. Well, that's right, I mean, 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.600 I would say Army Colonel Peter Mansoor said this about Blackwater. 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:29.400 If they push traffic off the roads, or if they 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.160 shoot up a car that looks suspicious, they may be 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.840 operating within their contract, but it is to the detriment 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:35.760 of the mission, which is to bring people over to 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.040 our side. Uh. There's also another quote I found in 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.440 a textbook called US Domestic and International Regimes of Security 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.520 by Army Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters, who said arm 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.640 contractors do harm counterinsurgency efforts. Just ask the troops in Iraq. 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.079 So there's a lot of military people who have served 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.640 alongside Blackwater where like these guys don't help the effort 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.560 in anyway. It's just like that nepotism, Like suddenly your 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.760 boss is like nephews shows up to work. It's fucking useless, 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:05.960 but it's like the boss had extra money, so it's like, yeah, 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:07.520 just give it to this guy. Well, it's a mix 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.480 of like the boss had extra money, but also like, boy, 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:12.760 we only have half as many troops as we need 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:14.960 to do the job. And these guys don't count as 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.800 humans legally, like we don't have to report that they 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:23.840 exist or died. It's a whole mess. Ah. So Eric 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:25.560 has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.400 about the fact that, you know, he had to sell 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.200 his company Blackwater and had to be renamed, and you 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.560 know there were all those murders sakers, and yeah, here's 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.400 how he sums that all up. After failing in their 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.720 multi year effort to win hearts and minds in Iraq, 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.600 the bureaucrats decided a company that had repeatedly answered this 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.520 government's please for help was suddenly more valuable as a scapegoat. 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.439 I was strung up so the politicians could feign indignation 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.640 and pretend my men hadn't done exactly what they paid 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:57.560 us handsomely to do. Oh what a worldview. I love it, 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.959 because like the major incident that led to him lose 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.680 in Blackwater was a bunch of his guys firing into 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.520 a crowd and it was like a protest, right, No, 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.000 it was just a traffic circle. One of them panicked 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.000 and they just right and there was like no explanation 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.600 and there weren't really any weapons, no one coming fire 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.240 right soever. No, they just massacred fourteen people. And he's like, Ah, 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.720 that's the politicians trying to make me look bad. Maybe 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:24.640 if your people hadn't shot for And then there was 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.240 that guy who drunkenly shot the vice president of Iraq 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.199 Security Guard and thean Zone. There's a lot of stuff. 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.679 Those guys who crashed an armored vehicle because they were drunk, 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.760 it's just the party crew black Water. Those do sound 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.760 like some fun parties, I mean in the scariest way 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:42.960 where you're like, I mean, these guys know what they're 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.160 doing with their guns, but I feel like it's going 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.360 to get weird suddenly. Yeah, they don't sound fun to 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.200 drink with getting drunk and having an armored vehicle to 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.599 tool around with. It sounds like, but not in like 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.280 an environment where there's the possibility that they would have 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.319 to be like have some kind of like situation nature 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.960 around you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, Uh, if you're a 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.880 company that makes armored vehicles were open for sponsorships, I 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.240 would love to just get drunk in your bearcat and 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.040 write it right into a fucking wall and show how 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.240 strong it is, how sturdy that armor is. Yeah. Uh 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.000 So Prince's book is surprisingly anti military. Uh He's very 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:24.360 careful about it because obviously he's a conservative dude, and 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.000 you can't say the military is not heroic. But he 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:29.760 he's picked specific officers who have said bad things about 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.840 his soldiers and tries to discredit them. Um. And he 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.079 regularly talks about how often the US military screws up 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.520 and jobs that Blackwater is also present at and usually 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:44.080 will like point out how much better the blackwater contractors. Right. Like, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:45.920 there's a picture in his book, like I guess at 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.200 some point John Kerry and some other congressmen were visiting 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.280 Afghanistan and their helicopter was like grounded on like a 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:54.480 fucking mountain peak or some ship. The picture looks like 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.559 they're on a mountain peak and they they got head 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:58.160 to get rescued, and the team that came in and 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:00.840 got them was blackwater stuff. And Eric Prince was like, 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:05.319 but he thanked US soldiers and not blackwater contractors. It's like, well, 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.880 he was probably thanking the U S soldiers who guarded 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:09.840 him up on the top of that mountain for hours. 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:15.640 Not not the toe truck guys. Whatever anyway, uh so, Yeah, 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:20.200 Prince's book is surprisingly uh anti military. He also cites 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.840 the failure in rebuilding Afghanistan and sort of ignores the 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.680 fact that that effort to rebuild Afghanistan was mainly carried 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:31.960 out by private companies. Yeah, well again, yes, uh so. 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.920 Here's a quote from his his book on Afghanistan that 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.360 I think is is relevant considering some of his more 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:41.200 recent plans for Afghanistan. Witness the totally failed economic development 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.640 of the Afghan economy. After nearly thirteen years of US 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.400 special forces on the ground, the AID community spent billions 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:48.920 and dead in boondoggles while ignoring the mineral and energy 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.080 sectors that could make Afghanistan an independent nation instead of 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.839 a welfare case. Oh wow, what do you think about that? 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.520 I mean, it sounds like there was some stuff to pillage. 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:05.120 Whoa you are right on? That sounded like he's like, guys, 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.640 there's just fucking money in There's there's a lot of 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.360 money in the ground in Afghanistan. It would be really 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.120 great if there was like some sort of outside document 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:14.680 that we could look at that would give us a 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.560 better idea of what Eric really meant when he started 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.760 bringing up Afghanistan's mineral and energy wealth. Oh hey, it 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.680 turns out it turns out he's been shopping his plan 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.160 to privatize the war in Afghanistan around d C and 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.000 BuzzFeed actually got a copy of the power point presentation 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.240 that Eric's using to try and sell his privatize the 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.080 war in Afghanistan plan, which is doing quite well, isn't it? 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.120 Probably probably what I hear in the news constantly. It's 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.920 like that's always on the horizon and always being you know, 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.400 promoted at least from the Trump And let's talk about that. 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.240 His his slide show is titled an Exit Strategy for Afghanistan, 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.320 a test case for the Strategic Economy of Force. Why 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.400 don't just call it an exit plan for Afghanistan? Just 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.000 give it to me. Well, there's a reason that he 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.120 made sure the word economy was in there, right, Yeah, 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:03.040 And we're about to get into that. So it turns 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.240 out there's a whole slide on this slide show about 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:09.720 the rare earth minerals that are present in the Helmand Province. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:11.440 And Eric makes a big point of the fact that 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:15.320 there's an estimated one trillion dollars in rare earth minerals 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:18.400 in the ground, and just this one province of Afghanistan. 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.640 Wasn't there a lot of fighting in Oh? You bet it? 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.720 Like I feel like that's the one province you would 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.760 was like repeatedly referred to. I mean, it's possible at 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.880 least that one one portion of there's debate between like 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.080 what the U. S Military says is controlled in Afghanistan 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.120 and what the Taliban controls and there's debate between that, 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.200 but they probably there's a good chance they control something 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:43.080 like the country right now. Um So anyway, Yeah, that 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.320 map looks pretty looks pretty juicy. It's interesting that he's 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.280 really specifying how many rare earth minerals are inside Helman 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.680 Province in this I wonder what he intends to do 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.560 these minerals well. In the slide show, he states that 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.440 he states that under his plan, the military effort in 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:04.000 Afghanistan will be quote strategic mineral resource extraction funded. Prince 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.440 believed that this will break the quote negative security economic 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:13.480 cycle of the war in Afghanistan. So so we'll dig 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.680 up them where earth mindals and self fund while we 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:22.400 just destroy the earth there. Yeah, so Eric Prince essentially 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:26.920 wants to make Afghanistan, take Afghanistan from an expensive peacekeeping 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.760 operation by the United States to a profitable, rare earth 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:36.160 mineral selling corporate endeavor. Uh, there's no talk or hint 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.480 about how this might make life better for African people. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.320 He's doing like rich war criminal, poor war criminal, where 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.800 it's like it's about passive income guys. Yeah, a Prince 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.120 company spokesperson said to BuzzFeed when they asked them about 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.120 this quote. What is laid out in the slides as 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:50.880 a model of an affordable way for the US to 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.680 stabilize a failed state where we are presently wasting American 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.160 youth in tens of billions of dollars annually. So they're 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.720 basically climbing onto the fact that pretty much everyone is like, yeah, 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.480 it's dumb that we're still in Afghanistan. Super we're not. 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.359 And he's like the sane people like, it's done that 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.720 we're in Afghanistan. We should leave. He's saying, it's done 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.400 that we're in Afghanistan. You should give it to me 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.560 so that I can mine it, right exactly, That's all 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.360 I'm interested in, because like, there is one I can see, 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:20.560 like on the face of it, right because since the 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.480 Iraq War in Afghanistan, like that has just been a 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.880 money pit that has just been led to the accelerated 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.199 decline of the American empire, right, Like it's sort of 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.280 these late what Afghanistan does, baby, but it's like it, 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:34.960 but it follows that trend of like all historical empires, 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.359 like they get into these like glamour wars that end 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.919 up bankrupting the country or whatever. More often than not, 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:44.320 the war is in Afghanistan. Yeah, and then so on 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:45.960 one party to go. Yeah, well it is kind of 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:47.800 a money pit, and that's all money that could have 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.600 been spent in the US on thinking like education, but 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.439 really you some bridges. Yeah right, but you know, let 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:57.560 him mind it. He's in mining. He can find a guy. Yeah, 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:00.200 he can find a guy has a fucking navy, so mine. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.760 I'm pretty sure he can handle some mind if he 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.520 can make the sea his mistress. Uh so yeah. Um. 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:12.199 Interestingly enough, Eric Prince's stated inspiration for his fucking sweet 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:17.840 idea seems to be the East India t Company. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.359 The Wall Street Journal let him write an opinion article 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.080 in May of two thousand seventeen. The article was titled 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.600 the MacArthur Model for Afghanistan. But further into the article 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.600 he cites our favorite corporation, which, if you haven't listened yet, 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:31.960 we did an episode on the East India Company. They 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.320 conquered India in the seventeen hundreds and star of twenty 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.200 or thirty million people to death through negligence. Uh yeah, 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.760 and they also invaded Afghanistan, which is why they went bankrupt. 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.680 Uh In interesting stuff anyway, here's Eric an East India 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.520 Company approach would use cheaper private solutions to fill the 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.200 gaps that plague the Afghan security forces, including reliable logistics 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:57.040 and aviation support. So bold bold of Eric Prince to 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:02.520 directly cite a company that was destroyed conquering Afghanistan, right right, right? Yeah, 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.320 well you know, maybe maybe it'll be different this Maybe 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.960 it'll be different this time. Okay, run example, like the 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:13.960 Soviet Is there something about Afghanistan that makes powerful rich 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:17.600 white men with armies stupid? Like? Is there like telling 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.080 a magical effect that it has? I don't, I don't 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.000 know because it keeps happening. Did they all know? Did 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.639 the Soviets know the resources that were there back then. Yeah, 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:29.760 but that's not even why they Yeah, but that wasn't 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.200 the motivation to support a government that was socialists. So 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:36.120 they lost money there. We lost money there. The British 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.359 Empire fought three or four wars there and let itself 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:43.679 dry there. Like nobody wins in Afghanistan. Afghanistan might just 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:45.920 be like where God lives, you know what I mean. 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:48.159 It's like, don't come in here, bro, No, this is 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.280 my house. Yeah, like watch this, who's next. I'll take 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.879 all your money? Yeah. Anyway, according to the Atlantic, so 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.080 Eric hasn't been forthcoming on most of the details of 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.760 his plan, but according to The Atlantic, in some other sources, 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:01.600 we know that he wants a viceroy to run the 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:05.320 whole operation. He compares this person to a bankruptcy trustee 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.720 who would have full control over hiring and firing US 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.240 personnel and country mentors would be embedded into Afghan units. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.959 These would be men from any country, according to Prince 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:19.160 quote with a good rugby team, so British, Australians, any 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:23.720 country with a good regular that's where he would recruit 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.439 his mercenaries mentors. Yeah, wait, why why the rugby? I 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:29.400 don't know, that's weird, right, Yeah, he's like, I love 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.080 rugby union. Rugby guys are good at war. Okay, so 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:36.359 New Zealand South Africa. New Zealand super good at war famously. Yeah, 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.400 I mean I think South Africa is probably he's gonna 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.680 get a lot of South African guys, some crooks out 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.240 of there. It's like, but they can also play rugby. Yeah. Now, 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:50.400 interestingly enough, Eric Prince also wants a composite air wing 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.359 to help the Afghan Air Force. In other words, this 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.440 Viceroy would have his own private air force working alongside 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:00.480 the air force. So with his with his proposal, if 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:02.399