Why?
Because if he were alive, he would have already made a videotape demonstrating that he's alive in order to make the United States go through a major moment of humiliation. Also, Pakistan would have denied that the man killed over the weekend was Osama Bin Laden, in order to avoid their current embarrassment.
Those are two pretty good reasons for why I know Osama died.But then, I grew up Catholic and have long since been taught that seeing is not necessary for believing. Not everyone is so fortunate.
Especially not individuals with political agendas who'll believe (or pretend to believe) the most radical conspiracy theories (birthers, anyone?).
The photograph might incense the terrorists (they're probably already incensed, though) and it might gross people out (were they expecting a pretty picture of a dead man?) but it carries some benefits.
It would make the U.S. government stop being so secretive about this operation and may make people start thinking that the government has nothing to hide. It would also demonstrate to the terrorists that their leader is dead and that there's proof. Their invincibility would suddenly be in question (let's face it, after the Iraq fiasco and the on-going Afghanistan failure, al-Qaeda are probably feeling their power right now).
And, let's face it, the situation feels a bit screwy, for lack of a better term.
Osama Bin Laden gets taken down on Sunday night. President Obama makes an announcement disrupting Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice" (props for that, by the way). Osama gets shot into a state of being unrecognizable. Osama is given Muslim burial rites on a U.S. warship and then he's dumped into the ocean.
The whole dumping into the ocean is very mafioso but it's also extremely mysterious. Why do that?
It's true that burying him in a Muslim country could lead to a terrorist shrine. It's also true that Saudi Arabia turned down the request to offer Osama Bin Laden a burial site.
And it would also have been a nightmare trying to get any county in the U.S. to accept a federal government decision to bury the terrorist mastermind on their soil. But why the rush to throw him overboard?
Why not bring him back to the United States or to Guantanamo and have independent agencies verify his identity?
The ocean wasn't going anywhere, so why the rush? Were they afraid of an al-Qaeda strike on a U.S. warship in the middle of the Arabian sea? That's possible but extremely unlikely.
Or was Obama afraid that carrying the body around for too long would anger Muslims?
That last is possible but the Muslims who would have been angry about that were probably already angry that Osama was dead, so who cares? There are reasonable people everywhere, in equal quantities, and those people would have understood the need to properly verify Osama's identity.
Sometimes, Mr. Obama, we need to give people a little more credit.
Now, all we have is an extremely dramatic execution that leaves a major door open for people to question whether or not Osama was really killed and it also gives Osama Bin Laden a large-than-life death. Killed in a carefully excuted raid, given a proper burial by his enemies and then thrown into the ocean. It's too dramatic and it can easily make Osama Bin Laden sound like a martyr.
Well, too late to criticize that now. The man is dead and the mistakes were made.
But why not release the picture now? The terrorists are already riled up. What they need to see now is their dead leader. It'll upset most of them, yes, but some of them may snap back to reality. One man choosing not to fight is worth more money than the whole world has together.
And the picture will dissuade some political extremists in the United States to accept reality.
Not to get all political but you have an election to win, Mr. Obama, and dramatic executions aside, the economy is still in shambles. The less that the Tea Party can say about you, the fewer anti-Obama voters who'll go to the polls.
Sometimes, practicality is the best option.
And if you're worried about the image being too graphic, that's fine. We'll be sure to warn our readers about it before publishing it.
ORIGINAL POST HERE
