I hesitate to actually post this, not because of the subject matter, but because I kind of want the Michelle dancing video to always be front and center on this blog. But, you know I can't keep my mouth shut.
As you undoubtedly saw by now, the White House said it will not release their photos of a dead Osama bin Laden. While for a while I thought I really wanted them to be released, I am now glad that they won't be released. Ultimately, I was swayed by posts, like this one, arguing that the pictures would end up as the gruesome replacement to our celebrations as the lasting image of the strike.
That said, I think the pictures will eventually leak. Heck, they're apparently already circulating around the Senate so it's probably only a matter of time before some drunken staffer tries to impress his friends with them at the Hawk and Dove and momentum takes over.
Finally, you probably also saw that Mama Grizzly said that Obama is "pussy footing around" by not releasing the photos as part of what TPM calls her "Self-Marginalization Tour." That's just a preview of what we could expect of Palin, Bachman, and the Donald are ever in the same debate.
5 comments:
Oh come on, Dave. This is a total downer. Can we go back to learning how to do the dougie with the First Lady?
In all seriousness, I have mixed feelings about releasing the OBL photos. For the most part, I don’t want them released. I’m repelled by the thought of seeing them. I’m sure they’ll be used in tasteless, offensive displays that I also have no desire to see. Their release will not placate “deathers.” And there is the potential that the images could “rally the troops” against us.
But I have this nagging feeling that in matters of government openness and transparency, only the last point really matters, not my personal threshold for what is and is not appropriate (and certainly not the deathers demands).
So I guess the question is, do OBL photos (and the likely images of what some of our fellow Americans do with them) pose such a great threat to our safety that they must remain classified? Maybe. Probably. I guess. I don’t know.
Someone tell me what the right answer is, please.
I pendulum back and forth on the photo issue. I agree with you about the openness issue and really thought that Jon Stewart had a great point last night when he mentioned that maybe Americans would have a better idea of what our decisions to go to war actually entail if we saw more war zone images.
Good thing I'm not running for office because I'm flip-flopping all over the place right now!
Damn. Not releasing them maked sense and I was glad for all the reasons you two mentioned.
But, there goes Bridget introducing those pesky and principled ideals of transparency and openness that we need to demand of our government, especially when they wage wars and targeted military actions (aka assasinations) on our behalf.
Isn't their some Clintonian 3rd way where the pictures aren't released, but maybe like a really well-done sketch is done by a prominent Arab artist and we get to see that?
Sigh.
Hey, I wrote "maked sense". Do I win something?
I think the third way is what's going to happen anyway -- it will leak.
That said, I did see this morning that all of the senators who said they saw the photo were duped by one of the fakes that's been floating around the Intertubes. Our most deliberative body indeed!
I hope that maked sense, John.
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