While the ongoing negotiations between American diplomats and the Taliban have spurred hopes for peace in Afghanistan, the possibility of the privatization of Afghan war in case of failure of the talks remains a colossal fear. An American delegation led by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Envoy for Afghan Reconciliation, has been engaged in comprehensive negotiations with Taliban representatives in the Qatari capital, Doha, for the past two weeks. Considering the complexity and multi-dimensionality of the war in Afghanistan, the protraction of peace talks was expected from the onset, and it did not seem realistic that Americans and Taliban would reach an agreement in few days or few rounds of talks that would restore peace in the war-torn country. The continuity of US-Taliban talks itself is a welcome and promising development because a belated peace is also always better than an endless war.
In the midst of peace talks, discussions to outsource the war in Afghanistan have also heated up. Eric Prince, the founder of the notorious American security firm, the Blackwater, has insisted on the privatization of the war. Prince has said that Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) cannot sustain for six weeks without foreign support. He also stressed that if there is no foreign support for the Afghan government, the next president of Afghanistan can end up in the fate of Dr.Najibullah who was publicly executed by the Taliban when they took over Kabul.
There is the fear that if the talks between the Taliban and the United States fail this time, Washington may opt for a plan B, which is perhaps contracting out the war to a private security company. In case of the collapse of the peace parleys, Americans will grab it as a justifiable pretext to privatize the war. Americans will tell the world that they were serious in peace talks, but the Taliban set conditions that could not be satisfied, and that the US administration is under the rising pressure of the American public. It is also not possible to desert Afghanistan, thus the privatization of war, which can dramatically reduce the enormous US spending on the war, remains the only option. Eric Prince’s closeness with Donald Trump further boosts the likelihood of going for the option. If peace parleys end up in failure as did in the past, it will be a huge opportunity for Prince to push for acceptance of his proposal. He will try to convince Trump, who largely sees and gauges everything from the perspective of money and profit, that the privatization of war will decrease American expenditure on the one hand and help bring American troops back home on the other hand, both of which can markedly prop up Trump’s position and bid for re-election in the upcoming US presidential election.
All sides involved in the war, especially Afghans, must not underestimate the threat. To eliminate the possibility, Afghan sides must join hands to prevent the war from falling into the hands of mercenaries or hired guns.