This is an idea I was juggling around in my head a few years back, shortly after my cousin was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. After wanting to fly in a chopper over there to strangle to death the man who planted the bomb, I instead let the creative juices flow to where I thought up a new use for money in trouble spots in Africa and the Mideast.

This is definitely not a petition to the government/people to hunt down and kill one man, a la Kony 2012. Instead, it's a petition to everyone in the troubled area to work toward recognition, kindness, and trust, the true currency of the world.

The method is as follows: drop in a hundred dollar bill, a highly publicized hundred dollar bill (or the equivalent in the local currency), in the region that is seeing the most grief, with a piece of paper attached. Write a message on the paper, it can be amended to accommodate for whatever area it's dropped in, but let's say it's Afghanistan. It would read:

"Dear Citizen,

It is dangerous for you to hold onto this money. You may wish to relinquish it to the proper authority."

"Dear Afghan Police,

This money is not intended for you to use to increase your arsenal. Instead, use it to help build schools and infrastructure. Please read on."

"Leader of the Jihad,

We will be dropping twice this amount next week only under the stipulation that the number of civilian, Taliban, and U.S. military deaths due to military action and suicide attacks is fewer during the week than the number of deaths from the week prior to today's date. If the number of deaths is the same or even higher, we will not be dropping money again for 2 weeks, and it will be at $100 again. Each week the death count decreases we will double the money, ($200, $400, $800, and so on) and each week it stays the same or increases we will stop for two weeks, then pick back up the moment we get back down to below what was the lowest number of deaths. This will be repeated up until $1,000,000 (after 15 weeks). It is our hope, though, that you begin receiving $1,000,000 every week even sooner, under a different stipulation. That is, any week with zero deaths from military action and suicide attacks will see $1,000,000 dropped automatically. Since we sincerely want to bring our troops home safe, we will begin pulling them back. Since no one wants their child to have to wander down a road always shifting their eyes toward any potential threats, we recommend you put the money to building schools and infrastructure instead of stockpiling weapons. Any news of stockpiling weapons for a future attack will also factor in our decision to drop the money. We also ask you consider this carefully and avoid reactionary killings in response to this, it's up to you if we drop more money or not. This is more an attempt to save lives than an attempt to manipulate. These olive branch money offerings will last for a year."

The idea is to improve foreign policy, win some hearts, maybe get some of the Taliban to alienate or even kill off even the most hardcore of jihadists, and appeal to reason. When money is involved, even insurgents see reason.

The general idea is there, and specifics can be worked out (initial amount, max amount, one big drop or multiple smaller drops, etc.). Any and all improvements are welcome, since I do intend to email the idea to my congressman. Call me a pacifist, an idealist, or what have you, but I just don't know why our troops' lives are devalued so much. This also probably wouldn't end up costing 100s of billions. Let me know what you think.