Sunday, February 6, 2005
Did Patty Murray start writing for the Times? This idea's going a bit too far I'd say, although aside from that, Friedman provides some decent food for thought today - lower the reward for Bin Laden, don't raise it.
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Marking Down Bin Laden
The U.S. should announce that it is lowering the reward for bin Laden from $25 million to one penny, along with an autographed picture of George W. Bush. At the same time, it should reduce the $25 million reward for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the chief terrorist in Iraq, to one pistachio and an autographed picture of Dick Cheney.
Don't get me wrong. Bin Laden and Zarqawi have murdered thousands of people. I want them brought in dead or alive - and preferably the former. If I thought $100 million would do it, I'd be for it. But these megarewards clearly are not working, and in many ways they are sending the totally wrong signals...
...What I would do with the $75 million we have budgeted as rewards for bin Laden and Zarqawi is use it instead to sponsor an essay contest for high school students in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria and Egypt. The contest entry form would say the following: "In 2,000 words, write an essay on one of these two topics: 1. Why do you believe the Arab-Muslim world is fully capable of achieving democratic, representative government and how do you envisage it coming about through peaceful changes inside your country, without any American or other outside help. 2. Write an essay about the lives of any of the great medieval Arab or Muslim mathematicians, scientists or philosophers and how their innovations helped to shape our world today."
How about we encourage them to find and celebrate a contribution made within the last 500 years? I don't think there's an insufficient quantity of dwelling in the past in that part of the world.
Maybe we could even call them the "Bin Laden Scholars."...
Ummm...no.
