Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Should Bin Laden's Photo be Released?

Should the White House release the photo of Osama Bin Laden taken after his death? The answer must be yes. Many believe that it will be inflammatory to some or that it will be too gruesome for many people to see. While both of these points of view may be correct, they don’t acknowledge the current reality. Eventually, the photo will get out. Whether we like it our not, in the age of Wikileaks and 24 hour news, someone will gain access to the photo(s) and release it to the public. The sooner the photo comes out, the less power it will have. The photo probably won’t do much to convince skeptics and conspiracy theorists that Bin Laden is still alive, since these people wouldn’t be convinced even if they took a scuba diving trip to find his body. But convincing people that he is dead is not really the point. We already know that his wife and some children where there and acknowledge that he is dead. If people don’t believe them, then they will never believe. The real issue is that this will be an example of how America tries to be transparent even when it may not benefit us. Just like a scandal situation, this is a situation that the American government needs to be driving the discussion of, not just reacting to what news organizations and internet groups can dig up.

3 comments:

BH said...

The difference in tone between the national media and the NYC media is stark. Local NYC morning shows are not debating if killing Osama was justified. One I was listening to this morning said, "I don't care if we killed him in his sleep as long as we got him." You get the feeling that NYC's pain is still close to the surface and even the "elites" in NYC media would have probably killed the man with their bare hands given the chance.

Like I said, the local NYC coverage and national coverage is very different in tone.

CRCHAIR said...

I agree. I don't think those outside of the NYC area can understand what it was like to go through 9/11. It is like us in the North East trying to understand what those in Alabama went through with the tornados or those in New Orleans went through in Katrina.

I really don't understand how people can be against his killing, in that he confessed to masterminding 9/11. So its not like we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Only the fringe conspiracy theorists could possibly believe that he didn't have a hand in it. To me, you would have to be someone who believes that there is never a time for violence and that you would not fight back under any circumstances.

Logo said...

The whole 'history vs his story' argument is not that strong since we do have 'history' on video, so it's not like Obama can reenact something different for the stills.