Erik Prince, the diminutive Blackwater founder, knows why four of his ex-employees were just convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians with machine guns: the goddamn anti-war hippies.

Prince—a " Christian crusader" who's taken to being a patriotic American in Abu Dhabi while dodging lawsuits—took time to answer some mild-mannered questions from Newsmax's Ed Berliner about the recent federal convictions of four Blackwater guards for opening fire on civilian Iraqis in Baghdad's Nisour Square in 2007, killing 17 and injuring at least 20.

Jurors were persuaded that the mass shooting was not a combat action taken in the heat and fog of battle, but typical of the cowboy shit at which Prince's well-paid privateers excelled. But as Buzzfeed's Andrew Kackynski reported, Berliner gave Prince an opportunity to place the blame where it really lay, with the kumbaya crowd. And Prince took that opportunity.

Berliner: "Do you believe that your guys, your own Blackwater guys, who were found guilty in this one case were sacrificed by somebody who's just trying to cover their own butt?"

Prince: "There's a lot of politics that surrounds the events… The bureaucratic attacks the company withstood because of this, it's all wrapped into the, I would say, the anger over the Iraq war. And in the Vietnam War, the anti-war left went after the troops. And this time they went after contractors, and Blackwater represented everything they loved to hate."

Berliner: "And that's a yes?"

Prince: "I would say yes."

Prince went on to argue that contractors are still a great option for America's martial ambitions, because "the private sector can serve as a price-check." Against ISIS, for example, "a competent private contractor, properly led and motivated, could accomplish that mission, yes," he said. "I would say in less than 12 months."