Dan Rather Would Pay Terrorists Ransom Money

Dan Rather, the disgraced former CBS anchor, appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday, and the things he had to say about journalism and war made him seem like more of a peacenik than ever before.

First, Rather said he'd pay terrorists ransom money.

He admitted that the blanket refusal of some governments, including the U.S. government, to pay ransoms could discourage terrorists from taking hostages in the first place, but he said that if a member of his own team were kidnapped, "I'd be looking to negotiate for ransom."

Then he spoke out against people pushing for military action in the Middle East, challenging them to send their own children to fight.

“All of these people on television, some of whom I have enormous respect for, it unsettles me to hear them say, listen, we the United States have to ‘do something’ in Ukraine, we have to ‘do something’ in Syria, we have to ‘do something’ in the waters around China, we have to ‘do something’ in Iraq, we have to ‘do something’ about ISIS," Rather said. “My first question to anyone who’s on television saying, ‘We have to get tough, we need to put boots on the ground, we have to go to war in one of these places’ is: I will hear you out if you tell me you are prepared to send your son, your daughter, your grandson, your granddaughter to that war for which you are beating the drums. If you aren’t I have no patience with you, and don’t even talk to me.”

(H/T: Mediaite)

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