It’s unlikely you’ve heard of Austin Petersen.
The 34 year-old is seeking the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party in a Quixotic bid to gain one percent of the vote.
While Austin’s chances of occupying the White House are as likely as a Cheetos-eating, 400-pound gamer winning the next Olympic decathlon, the young candidate still has interesting ideas.
In a press release published this week, Austin offered a solution to the threat of ISIS: letters of Marque and Reprisal . . . essentially placing a free market bounty on the heads of ISIS leaders.
Petersen said, “Letters of Marque and Reprisal are how Thomas Jefferson would have dealt with ISIS. I’m confident that his foreign policy, based on free market approach, would handily win the struggle against radical jihad.”
Think Dr. King Shultz and his natural-born killer, Django.
Rather than rounding up murderous slavers in the South, Austin recommends the government places bounties on the heads of murderous jihadists in the Middle East.
The thought provoking concept deserves deliberation as it could lead to a significant costs savings in war fighting while creating a niche industry for veterans who have an itch to lone wolf a kill or two for a million per head.
While an entertaining thought, the practice has been put to rest for good reason as unleashing endless bands of “dead-or-alive” hunters could lead to the creation of even more terrorists.
It’s a chicken and the egg thing.
Austin’s suggestion is very unique for one reason only . . . he’s a libertarian.
Stark anti-interventionists would throw a hissy fit over the thought of incentivizing people to go into another nation and kill the bad guys.
Among libertarians, it took September 11th for them to sheepishly admit that “sure, we can fight back” after thousands of Americans were killed in the attacks.
Austin will find out soon enough if his solution to ISIS will resonate among libertarians, as the Libertarian Party Nominating Convention is coming up in May in Orlando, Florida.