More than a year after his plan to privatize the Afghan war was first shot down by the Trump administration, Erik Prince returned late last month to Kabul to push the proposal on the beleaguered government in Afghanistan, where many believe he has the ear - and the potential backing - of the U.S. president. Prince swept through the capital, meeting with influential political figures within and outside the administration of President Ashraf Ghani. He's winning Afghans over with the assumption that he's close to Trump," said one well-informed Afghan. Prince also sparked what Ghani ... condemned as "a debate" within the country over "adding new foreign and unaccountable elements to our fight." At the Pentagon, the head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, told reporters that "I absolutely do not agree" with Prince's contention that he could win the war more quickly and for less money with a few thousand hired guns. Prince, the brother of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and a substantial contributor to Trump's presidential campaign ... has made a controversial career out of providing security for hire. Since severing his ties to Blackwater - the company he founded that was accused of heavy-handed practices, including the killing of civilians, while under U.S. contract in Iraq - Prince has cycled through several iterations of the same business and now runs a Hong Kong-based company called Frontier Services.