Mercenaries aren’t a solution to Afghanistan’s forever war

Prince’s mercenary force would probably be skilled at such violence, but certainly not at helping Afghanistan bolster its government or foster political reconciliation with the Taliban. Afghan leaders would be unlikely to welcome private contractors into their armies so readily, especially given the history of Prince’s old company in Iraq, where its operatives gunned down 14 civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2017.

“Everything we know about successful counterinsurgency tells us that it requires close integration between political goals and forces. It is the tethering of force to common and shared concerns that begin to build its legitimacy and thus the political buy-in on which stable governance is built,” wrote Deborah Avant of the University of Denver. “But with [private military companies] you often trade integration away. This has been particularly true with U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”