This is why idealists are often lousy leaders

Thomas Friedman, at the New York Times, opines that we should take the prcie of bin Laden's and al-Zarqawi's heads:

A few weeks ago it was reported that the Bush administration was considering doubling the reward for the capture of Osama bin Laden from $25 million to $50 million. I totally agree with readjusting the reward for bin Laden's capture, I just think the Bush team has the number totally wrong. 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.

His feeling is that it would be just so much more meaningful if the Muslims could capture these killers themselves. It sounds good, but the fact is that, in the Arab street, more than in most places, money talks. Nothing is going to make some nowhere village feel better than several million dollars, allied with the gratitude of many people for bringing some killers down. After all, as Michelle Malkin points out here, the Iraqis are finally getting tired of being pushed around by the bad guys, and are fighting back. And there's nothing to sweeten the fight like a big chunk o' change. Friedman's heart is in the right place (I think), but he'd better get his head aligned with reality.