I'm not anxious to see a dead body, but it strikes me that, in the case of Osama Bin Laden, some such photograph should have accompanied the reports of his killing.
Now, I know that images can be manipulated via computer, so perhaps a photograph like the above photo of Dillenger still would not be conclusive proof. Even so, I find it odd that such proof was not immediately provided to the public.
Now with the passage of time, the emergence of such proof will become more and more suspect.
I don't doubt that Bin Laden is dead. My question is: has he been dead for several years and has that fact been concealed from the American public?
For a long while, he was worth more to the U.S. government alive and at large than dead. Until this recent news, he has been largely forgotten. Perhaps this is the final Bin Laden card the U.S. Government had to play.
What if he died of natural causes a few years ago? What if he died in the initial pounding of the mountains in Afghanistan in late 2001? Who would have known?
The claim that he was flown to the Arabian Sea within hours of his death in an effort to be responsive to "Muslim sensitivities" just does not seem credible.
If the U.S. Government desires to be responsive to Muslim sensitivities, it can begin by withdrawing all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, stop drone attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Yemen, and Libya, and stop propping up dictators throughout the Arab world.
Burying a Muslim at sea who did not die at sea is a very odd reading of fiqh.
It appears to me to be an attempt to dispose of a body--if, in fact, such a burial at sea even occurred.
Pardon my skepticism, but we are talking about the government that invented Saddam's WMDs, a heroic death for Pat Tillman, staged the Jessica Lynch rescue, etc., etc.
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