Monday, August 20, 2018

All About a Prince named Erik

ALL ABOUT a Prince named Erik, 1. Who is Erik Prince? Mr Prince is a businessman and former U.S. Navy SEAL officer best known for founding the government services and security company Blackwater USA, now known as Academi. He is the brother of you should know who but let's focus on Mr Prince. Loads of political trajectories are pointed at Mr Prince amidst his proposal "to privatize the war." This surfaced following President Trump's increasing frustration that his national security team's strategy in Afghanistan isn't working. 




ALL ABOUT a Prince named Erik, 2. Let's define "privatize," verb, transfer (a business, industry, or service) from public to private ownership and control. That'd mean the government ceases to be the owner of the entity or business. The process in which a publicly-traded company is taken over by a few people is also called privatization. Meantime, if the US government spends for war or whatever we call military presence somewhere, that'd fall under Defense budget, which is essentially taxpayers money. Question: If the government's military spending is privatized, where'd we course what'd could be saved from the huge Defense budget? (I will discuss that later.) 




ALL ABOUT a Prince named Erik, 3. As they entered White House, Donald Trump proposed $639.1 billion Defense budget; Obama, $523.9 billion. Trump's tenure isn't over yet so we don't what'd be his term's total spending. To give you an idea, in FY 2015, Pentagon and related spending totaled $598 billion, about 54 percent of that fiscal year's discretionary budget. In 2017, President Obama proposed an increase of $2.2 billion over the base budget. So on and so forth. Lots of money, right? 
          I can probably say maybe some money went to the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program, which admitted a record 110,000 refugees in 2016. But FRSP is under the Department of Health. To give you an idea, hosting refugees cost U.S. taxpayers $8.8 billion in five years time, like $70,000+ a year per person. Think about your total annual salary, uh huh. But then government budget juggling is a fact so maybe some of those Defense billions went to refugee resettlement. 

ALL ABOUT a Prince named Erik, 4. Back to Mr Prince. His name and Blackwater USA first came up, or Erik kinda noise was comparatively louder, when Trump visited Saudi Arabia on the onset of Donald's presidency. Saudi Arabia, the OPEC stalwart and #1 producer of oil (before Russia rocks it) and most importantly, #1 exporter to the US. Think Aramco, based in Dhahran, which digs up the world's second-largest proven crude oil reserves. Now called Saudi Aramco, it was formerly Arabian-American Oil Company. 



         You may Google "oil in Middle East" and it'd take you to Getty time or far back to 1930s, and you'll read names like Karl Twitchell, Stephen Longrigg, and eventually California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC), which leads to Texas Oil Company, CALTEX, and there we go to eventual marketing network in Africa and Asia. My point: US military is imperative out there. More importantly, Saudi Arabia and US' bilateral agreements have always been dovetailed with "arms etc for oil" since way back when. How'd that happen? I could mention first Communist "interference" in the region but that's not my topic, for now. 

ALL ABOUT a Prince named Erik, 5. Now this is the hitch as Trump visited the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has decided to diversify under Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Such a trade diversification move is not a Saudi initiative. Rich Qatar has been doing that recently. And it's working. Damn, the Prince has been buying art recently. Not bad, right? Compared with buying arms. 
          Following the reminder of Arab Spring (started 2010), SA has been planning to lessen oil drilling and do other fun and profitable things since they already got the moolah anyways. Like, follow the Chinese example. Remember, Beijing bankers also advised Russian natural gas/oil magnates to diversify upon handing them loan/s. Anyhow, SA has been hinting of low oil production for years. Yes, Yemen and Syria are trouble areas but hey maybe foreign policy's war funding should be focused instead to other things and let private business dudes deal--while Washington blocks a possibility of 1978 oil crisis. We still gotta deal arms since that's what was written. 




ALL ABOUT a Prince named Erik, 6. Question: Are private arms dealers new in re government funding of war? No. For starters, let me just point you to these enterprising dudes, Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, who received a US Army contract to supply munitions for the Afghan National Army worth approximately $300 million more than ten years ago. What makes Erik Prince different from Diveroli and Packouz? Not much. Only, Prince could be official, but those two guys, you may call them, dubious. 
          But then should I point you to history? Arms dealership by major businesses: Dassault Aviation, Sukhoi, Mikoyan, EADS, Leonardo, Thales Group, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman to name a few. What makes Blackwater USA or Academi different from those? You see, once a bomb is dropped or a militia is funded, people out there who get hit aren't talking about who the Pepsi or Coke dropped them. They will point to America or Russia or China or any world power. A government's foreign policy. So why don't we focus on ending the war and instead deal lo meins or organic hummus? By pointing our guns (pun, okay?) at personalities and people, we are negating issues and policies. You may strike Trump or Prince out, but the system stays. As The Who shouts, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss... We don't get fooled again!" 



ALL ABOUT a Prince named Erik, 7. Lastly, back to my previous question. If war-shenanigans are privatized, what do we do with whatever is saved from the Defense money? Easy. Fund FEMA or make it a department than just under Homeland Security. Improve veterans health benefits. Etc etcetera. But I am sure or almost sure that lotsa money will be directed towards two major trade routes: South China Sea and Strait of Hormuz. Washington has somehow silenced Pyongyang and Seoul is now chillin' with bros and sis across the 38th parallel border. But Iran is still you know being a butt. Iran may annex Saudi Arabia in re stewardship of OPEC. That is a concern. But maybe some money will be pitch as major leverage when Washington and Manila sit down for new bilateral summit in re military bases out there. Makes sense. Meantime, I'd rather chuck the Erik Prince talk and just instead talk about the real Prince. You know, "When Doves Cry"? 

No comments:

Post a Comment