Re: MORALITY: making tradeoffs (was: a topic we will not discuss)

From: Mark Walker (mdwalker@quickclic.net)
Date: Mon Sep 17 2001 - 16:05:40 MDT


----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com>
> I am probably digging my grave deeper here but I have to ask,
> "How many Afgani lives are worth $7.5 billion?".
Robert I don't think your grave can get any deeper, I think you have already
broke the earth's crust on the other side of the planet.
>A show I watched
> yesterday indicated that Continental is laying of 13,000 employees.
> This is going to ripple out to many economies around the world.
> A global economic slowdown will "trickle down" to the third
> world likely decreasing incomes of the poorest of the poor
> resulting in increased deaths from hunger and starvation.

I heard that bin Laden use to have a price tag of 5 million on his head. But
in terms of the kinds of sums we are looking at now this is only coffee and
donut money. I wonder how much the terrorism problem could be mitigated by
offering substantial rewards, say in the billions of dollars, to bring down
bin Laden network. I think it might be easier to raise a huge coffer for
such rewards than it would be to raise armed forces. Indeed, this might be
one way to keep up a sustained offensive on terrorists around the world.
Presumably we would need some sort of international judicial system to
dispense the rewards and put down guide lines for acceptable means to bring
the terrorists down. I suppose to some it will look like we are trying to
save western lives at the expense of other lives. But the reality is that
fewer lives overall would probably be lost this way. Those closer to the
Terrorists will know their ways better and probably be better equipped to
spare the lives of the innocent. Certainly this seems a little less drastic
than your "final solution".
Mark.



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