There is no substantial reason for releasing the photo of a dead Osama Bin Laden. The only purpose it could serve is to add sensational grist to the mill of 24 hour news. Releasing the picture will only reinforce the idea that any trifling conspiracy theory is valid until proven otherwise; whether that be where Barack Obama was born or if OBL is truly dead. If the White House were lying about tracking and killing the world's most wanted terrorist, couldn't aforementioned terrorist burst the president's bubble by releasing another of his videos? And if this was a hoax, wouldn't the prankster be better served releasing the photo right before election day?
Withholding the picture is also important for the same reason OBL was buried at sea. He was more important to the global jihadist movement as an icon than an operator. Burial at sea prevents his final resting place from becoming a monument. The remains of Adolf Eichman, the architect of the Holocaust, were similarly scattered in the Mediterranean. Bin Laden's ideology hinges on aggrandizing his conflict to that of a holy war so that his followers believe that terrorism is a matter greater than deposing dictators or forcing Western powers to retract. Al-Qaeda seeks to build up its combatants as folk heroes, 9/11 organizer Khalid Sheik Mohahmed told a courtroom that he is like George Washington. Responding in kind would be confirming their self-proclaimed elevated status as an existential threat and would also be detrimental to the United States's safety. Terrorists should not be presented as madmen bent on razing the U.S., but as criminals, murderers, hypocrites who would just as soon kill the people the claim to be fighting for. Terrorists should not be given a forum for dramatic speeches, their burials should not be an occasion for ceremony. Combating terrorism is as much a conflict of ideas and the U.S. should not feed the discourse, but tamp down the grand language terrorism thrives on.
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