The article below was in yesterdays Wall Street Journal.
IRAN
U.S. Offers Rewards
For Terrorists' Locations
The Obama administration has offered as much as $12 million in rewards for information leading to the location of two Iran-based al Qaeda leaders, saying they are key facilitators in sending extremists to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The State Department says it will provide as much as $7 million for information on Muhsin al-Fadhli and $5 million for information on Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi.
The announcement Thursday coincided with new Treasury Department penalties against Mr. Harbi. Any assets he holds in the U.S. are now blocked and Americans are banned from doing business with him. Mr. Fadhli is already subject to such restrictions.
—Associated Press
Do you think that this is an outrageous amount of money for the U.S. to be offering to pay for information? Would you be happy if this is what your tax dollars end up paying for? Or should the U.S. focus less on international spending and more on lowering government deficit?
I think money like this is well spent. Especially when it comes to the national security or lives of others. Furthermore, twelve million dollars seems to be so minute compared to the deficit and the kind of spending that we are partaking in. However, international spending as a whole could be reduced in some way. I feel as if military spending or national security measures is not where we need to find cuts at the current time.
ReplyDeleteYeah in the grand scheme of things, if we spend $12 million and as a result of it can sleep easier at night knowing that two terrorist leaders are no longer running free, plotting who knows what, then I think it is worth it. Plus, I'm sure it isn't as simple as giving a little information, and then automatically receiving 12 million dollars. First of all the article uses the terminology, "as much as" which still leaves the possibility of giving a lower amount. On top of that, the information would most likely have to be accurate enough to lead to the capture of the subject in order to be compensated.
ReplyDeleteCompared to the cost of fighting World War III with Iran, $12 million is nothing. The US needs to make sure that it has nearly perfect military intelligence, otherwise we could very easily end up repeating Afghanistan and Iraq. Of course, if the information we receive says that these terrorists are in Iran, we need to avoid starting a war in order to apprehend them, if this is how this incident plays out I would rather see these terrorists remain free than to commit our country to another decade lost in military quagmires in the middle east.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I want to say that that money could be used towards something else, $12 million really is a very small of amount compared to everything that the U.S has on its back. Nonetheless, it is important to think about how far this reward can or should go. Like Karl says, another war would not be the answer nor would it be a good thing. The country has to do what it has to do for the security of the nation, but I do hope this ends the best way possible.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, the $12 million is small compared to what we have put into the war so far. It will be nice knowing that we can sleep better at night without terrorist leaders potentially plotting and taking care of them step by step. I don't know if it is worth $12 million though. I mean chipping away at the debt or something else can be useful. It reminds me of the exercise we did in class the other week and having to make cuts at some point in a lot of areas. Yes military is important but at the same time we could save a lot of money by cutting back a little bit on that as well. It is a really tough call to make as not everyone will ever be happy.
ReplyDeleteUS has too much on stake when it comes to national security. One wrong move and there will be millions of people questioning them. Spending $12 million is totally justified. They need have information about every single move. One mistake can lead to another unfortunate event like 9/11 or push the country into a war and a war would mean a lot more money than $12 million.
ReplyDeleteAs pretty much everyone else has said, 12 million is really nothing in the great scheme of things. There are many way the government spends money that makes me uneasy, but this isn't really one of them. If this is the price it will cost for security and peace of mind, I'm all for it.
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