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Graham Platner: I Never Worked for Blackwater. (xcancel.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by yonderbarn@lazysoci.al to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

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Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner says his six months in Afghanistan in 2018 as a State Department security contractor revealed how America’s wars had become “a corporate money-grab.” He clarified he never worked for Erik Prince’s Blackwater but for a hedge-fund-owned successor that inherited its State Department contracts. “They used guys like me with these backgrounds to meet the contract requirements so they could pay us bare minimum and walk away with the balance.”

Platner said his job mostly involved driving for the U.S. ambassador’s security team. “We were barely leaving the Green Zone… All I did was lift weights and play video games. I got huge and I played a lot of Far Cry,” he said.

He quit after six months and went home to farm oysters.

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[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

Agreed. It doesn't have to be this big conversation about "letting people change". That's fine for a personal friend I'm trying to help grow. We're talking about a politician that will influence the lives of thousands to millions of people. Yeah. I'll have a higher standard and much more doubt. It's that simple.