Best I remember so did CHIEF.
CHIEF Negotiator's last vanity article was a patriotic lament that he (ex-Marine Force Recon sniper) had been denied permission to re-up by his beloved Marine Corps on account of his being "too old" (In fact, I'd bet that CHIEF was probably more fit at 53 than a civilian like me has ever been at 26 -- and I'm no couch-potato slouch. No doubt CHIEF was infinitely deadlier with a rifle, to boot).
The passage of Letters of Marque and Reprisal would've allowed him to re-enter his country's service, on his own schedule, playing by his own rule-book. It's a shame that CHIEF did not live to see the introduction of this Bill by Rep. Paul.
But there are thousands -- if not tens of thousands -- of semi-retired Special Forces like him out there in the Private Sector today. They may be "too old" for regular service by the standards of Pentagon red tape, but they sure aren't too old to call some old friends, re-establish some old contacts, and collect a Bounty. Assuming an Al-Qaeda organization of 20,000 terrorist operatives in 37 different countries, we could theoretically Bounty the heads of every single Al-Qaeda operative at a half-million bucks a head for $10 Billion dollars, plus a couple billion more in logistic support. Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that Marque-and-Reprisal sanctioned bounty hunters are mutually-exclusive with Government Military action against defined Nation-State targets; they aren't. But the US Government can hardly declare war on 37 different countries at once. Private Contractors working in two and three man groups, by contrast, can more-or-less go pretty much wherever they please.
And bear in mind that, even with Bounties averaging a half-million per scalp, the $10 Billion+ figure represents only one-quarter of the $40 Billion package already approved by Congress for this year, and one-third of the $30 Billion dollar increase in Defense spending already budgeted for next year. I think we should all recognize a bargain when we see it.
Nor is it just the money. A Private ex-military Contractor may be every bit as cost-effective (if not moreso) as Official Government forces in hunting down and terminating/apprehending Marqued terrorist operatives... but a Private ex-military Contractor is never going to ask his fellow law-abiding citizen to surrender his Second Amendment Rights, or to carry a national ID card.
Think on it. Then call your Congressmen.