Ben Stein: U.S. Should Start Paying Ransom to ISIS

Ben Stein, who probably has the most arbitrary career in media, said in a Sunday commentary for CBS News that the U.S. should abandon its policy against paying off terrorists who kidnap Americans.

In recent months, the Islamic terrorist network ISIS has uploaded videos to the internet showing the execution of two American journalists after the U.S. refused to negotiate for their release.

“These men don’t deserve to die this way,” Stein said. “If they can be ransomed, let’s do it. We have plenty of money.”

Stein’s argument is based on the idea that declining to pay ransom will “not stop the allure of a fundamentalist, murderous movement to sick minds.”

There’s no evidence paying off terrorists will yield different results, but what the hell, said Stein:

Why don’t we pay ransom? France apparently pays ransom. The Germans, whom we don’t think of as softies, pay ransom. What is so great about not paying ransom?

Stein closes with another proposal.

“Let’s show some mercy to our own people — and let’s keep them from being kidnapped by keeping them the heck away from the whole area,” he said. (The “whole area” must be the growing locations in Iraq and Syria where elements of ISIS are based.)

[Photo via ABC/screen grab]

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