Journal tomhudson's Journal: Cheap(er) quick and easy solution to terrorist groups. 9
- Offer a ONE BILLION DOLLAR REWARD for bin Laden
- Pull out of Iraq.
- Wait a week.
Imagine if this approach had been used with Saddam. For a billion dollar reward, his inner circle would have been sharpening the knives to serve his head up on a platter. The Mafia would have been sending hit men to Iraq. All sorts of free-lancers would be trying to collect. Heck, for a billion, the Vatican would have sent a few people. A billion is a billion, even today.
The same goes for bin Laden. He wouldn't be able to trust anyone, because a billion dollars buys a lot more than just the 72 virgins a martyr is supposed to get.
As the Iraq body count hits 4,000, a billion dollars works out to $250,000 per dead soldier. It costs more than that to train, equip, mobilize, and bury them, not to mention the loss of future earnings. Take the free market capitalist approach - let the money do the work.
The real pay-off? It would also set a precedent that every other terrorist would have to fear - that they could end up with a big bulls-eye painted on them that makes even their closest confidantes salivate.
And lets face it - since whoever collects the reward will probably want to move to the US, the money would just get put back into the local economy. And the head can be auctioned off on eBay to help recoup some of the loss AND further drain the funds from terrorist organizations - "Buy this head or it gets buried wrapped in pigskin!"
$500. (Score:2)
As Ted Koppel said yesterday, if no one in the poverty-stricken areas of Afghanistan or Pakistan turned him in for $25 million, they're not going to do it for $50 million either. We should change the reward on him to reflect his actual significance and start ignoring him.
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That's why you make it a billion. You'll attract all sorts of opportunists. All it takes is one ... The people around bin Laden probably don't know about the $25 million, and $25 million is something they can afford to ignore - they're not motivated by money. Its the one or two near the top, plus the whole rest of the world, you want gunning for him.
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That's why you make it a billion. You'll attract all sorts of opportunists. All it takes is one ... The people around bin Laden probably don't know about the $25 million, and $25 million is something they can afford to ignore - they're not motivated by money. Its the one or two near the top, plus the whole rest of the world, you want gunning for him.
There are some people (like bin Laden) who use the rewards on his head as "bragging rights"... "How much do they have out for *you*? Is THAT all? They have ONE BILLION DOLLARS on *MY* head! I'm REALLY important! Follow me, son, and maybe those pig-dog American devils will raise the price for YOUR head, too!"
Feh. I say we get enough porkers to surround Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and start working inwards. They can't touch pork, so eventually one of two things will happen: either we'll fin
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"either we'll find the bugger and we can lynch him where he stands then go after his lemmings, or he'll have to deal with treading land defiled by the presence of pigs."
Darn it (Score:1)
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Billion Dollar Corpse (Score:2)
Of course all of this plays into the game that they want to "win" and end a "war" they deliberately created, to continue the boondoggle that Eisenhower warned was up with the "cold war".
Americans will be taxed into 5 generations of debt, to pay trillions into the pockets of crony CEO and board members and international banks. All the while, they will be fooled into believing sustenance-level wage slaves
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"He's been dead since 2003 - at least. The "new" tape they trotted out last week was 5-year-old footage."
Seeing as its hard to get dialysis in a regular basis when you're hiding in caves, I agree ... but that doesn't stop it from being agreat way to force people to look at the real issue ... which is that the war on terror is bogus, as is the way its being prosecuted.
The US has done some truly amazing things over the course of history ... but that's all being thrown away as it reduces its middle class
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The US future lies triangulated between the visions of "Handmaids Tale", Gilliam's "Brasil" and Heilein's "Starship Troopers".
Of course, behind the heroic myth of Starship Troopers is the laughable reality of "Bill, the Galactic Hero." The 'enemies' are ALL really just Chingers.