Not allowing private firms to run our brutal wars

Who can blame the Afghan government, as corrupt as it is, resisting the onslaught of unaccountable private military contractors, teams increasingly relied upon by Western states in their futile battle against an indigenous “enemy”?

The Afghan president on Wednesday rejected pleas from the international community to reverse his order to disband all private security companies, saying money spent on those firms should be invested in the national police force instead.

President Hamid Karzai ordered Afghan and international security companies — which protect everything from development projects and NATO supply convoys to private houses — to disband by the end of the year. The decision has drawn criticism from the U.S. and others who worry the Afghan security forces are not ready to assume the burden.

But Karzai told reporters he was tired of hearing complaints from embassies about the order, and said his decision to shut them down was final.

“We hope that our international friends will not get back to us or try to put pressure on us or talk about it in the media because none of these are going to work,” he said. “These companies are closed — that is it.”

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