Picture of a Dead Guy

I have listened to the right and left leaning media with interest ever since Obama announced last Sunday evening that Osama bin Laden was dead.  I find that I cannot agree with either.  The announcement was breath-taking.  After nearly 10 years on the run, America got its man.  A sense of relief and satisfaction was felt by most Americans old enough to have witness the twin towers crash down.  I believe the national unity ends there.

Obama's decision to send in the Navy Seals was described by the left as a "tough call" made by a decisive leader.  Baloney.  It was a no-brainer that if not made, would have sank his presidency.  Clinton took heat for lobbing a couple of Tomahawk missiles at OBL after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.  Bush took heat for letting OBL out of the box a Tora Bora.  Obama would have been destroyed had it ever been known that he knew where OBL was and did not act.  The liberal media are propping Obama up, making him look like the hawkish president he is not.

On Monday and Tuesday, many of the conservative talk show hosts paid complements to Obama's handling of the event.  By Wednesday they began criticizing him for the clumsy, sometimes contradictory, stories coming out of the White House.  When the White House announced on Thursday they would not release pictures of the dead OBL, the right attacked.   I don't understand it.

Osama bin Laden is dead.  Even al-Qaida acknowledges this fact.  There will be some extremists that will not believe that he is dead.  A picture will not change their feeble minds.  Releasing the picture will not make OBL any deader.  There is no upside, and could have a huge inflammatory down side.  My gut tells me that when there is no upside and a potential downside, the risk can never be justified.  There is no need to release a picture of OBL with a hole in his head.  The right should back off.

I am sure that many people would like the satisfaction of seeing OBL dead.  Maybe they would consider it closure for 9/11.  Myself, I take great satisfaction in knowing the OBL spent his last 10 years wondering if a Navy Seal would be the next and final thing he would ever see.  I am sure he knew how it would end for him.  It must have been a tormented life.  That, along with a tormented eternity is vengeance enough for me.