Erik Prince, the man who founded Blackwater - the company of mercenaries that fought in Afghanistan and Iraq - said President Obama should privatize fighting against ISIS, according to Time.
"The American people are clearly war-fatigued," Prince wrote, according to Time. "If the Administration cannot rally the political nerve or funding to send adequate active duty ground forces to answer the call, let the private sector finish the job."
Prince said "the President's current plan seems half-hearted at best," according to Time. Some U.S. military officials have even questioned the efficacy of air strikes.
Prince thinks foot soldiers would be able to get the job done. Some have wondered about the job hired soldiers would do - a job that wouldn't be under U.S. military laws or rules.
"If the old Blackwater team were still together, I have high confidence that a multi-brigade-size unit of veteran American contractors or a multi-national force could be rapidly assembled and deployed to be that necessary ground combat team," the ex-Navy Seal wrote, according to the article. "A competent professional force of volunteers would serve as the pointy end of the spear and would serve to strengthen friendly but skittish indigenous forces."
Prince also wrote that privately paid soldiers would save the U.S. money. Time quoted Prince's written statement:
"Unfortunately, the DOD has mastered the most expensive ways to wage war, adding only very expensive options to the president's quiver. Flying off of an aircraft carrier in the north end of the Persian Gulf may be a great demonstration of carrier air power suitable for a high tempo war, but the costs will quickly become staggering, far higher than they need be for what will quickly become a counter-insurgency effort."
Prince also implied that the U.S. failed by pulling troops out of Iraq in 2009.
"Afghanistan will likely go the same way after never truly defeating the Taliban. Now the danger of a half-baked solution in Iraq is that if ISIS isn't rightly annihilated, they will portray their survival as a victory over the forces of civilization; thus, there is no room for half-measures. The longer ISIS festers, the more chances it has for recruitment and the danger of the eventual return of radical jihadists to their western homelands."
