The President has decided not to release photos of a dead bin Laden. Apparently he fears the world wide release of such photos would be "inflammatory" and suggested that the photos might be used as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. (Where have I heard this before.) That's the same argument he's made for closing Gitmo and yet Gitmo remains open. Convenient hypocrisy. Can we finally put to rest the illusion that actions taken by the U.S. are "recruiting tools"? Those sympathetic to Islamic extremism need no prompting from any U.S. actions to join the twisted ideology that embodies Al Qaeda. They're already sold on the idea. No further sales pitches are needed.
The President says that the photos would be inflammatory. Well, let me show you a photo that I always found particularly inflammatory. I've posted it here for your viewing. The photo has been called falling man for obvious reasons. The man in the photo jumped from a window high in the World Trade Center to avoid burning to death. Imagine the choice that he had to make. Imagine choosing to plummet a thousand feet to your demise as a viable alternative to some harsher mode of death. This man was not alone in making that choice. Dozens of others made the same choice that day. I can't begin to imagine being placed in such a situation. And earlier in that bright September morning, I doubt any of them thought such a choice would ever be required. We were all exposed to graphic violence that day. We saw the planes - loaded with passengers some as young as 2 years old, crash into the WTC again and again. We saw tons of steel and concrete cave in on emergency personnel. We saw a city devastated. A nation wounded. And we saw the people jump from those windows.
How can you incite an ideology that videotapes an American citizen, Nick Berg being beheaded then distributes the video? Or blows up innocent people gathered at a wedding? How do you get into the mind of the animals who would contemplate then execute such inhumane and evil acts? And then how can you believe that posting a photo of their dead leader could possibly incite them to do even worse? If Al Qaeda had an operable nuclear device at their disposal, do you have any doubts at all that they would use it?
I've seen evil and so have you. I've seen how far evil will go and now I need to see the mortal face of evil defeated - if only to assert to the world that we will not allow such acts to go unpunished. Mr. President, we are made of tougher stuff than you think. We've endured the loss and pain of September 11, 2001 and the personal loss that so many military families have endured in the aftermath of that day. After 10 years and 3000 lost lives later, we deserve to see the result of the retribution that was leveled. If the rest of the world has no stomach for it, then they can turn away. If those who sympathize with the terrorists are incited to fight us - we can assume they would have been urged to do so with or without any photos in the equation. Perhaps I am not as good a Christian as I hope to be. Maybe I shouldn't rejoice in the death of another human being. But I do. It's been said that only God can pass judgement on another human being. Well, now that were done with Bin Laden... God can have him.
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