Real Men Don't Need Trophies

President Obama decided not to release the photos of a dead bin Laden because " we don't need to spike the football."

After getting a 24-hour break from manufactured controversy, we are up again into questions about whether there was resistance by bin Laden,was the whole raid illegal and shouldn't we release the photos to show the world what happens to you if you cross Uncle Sam.

Judge Napolitano on Fox News proclaimed that the killing of bin Laden violated several international treaties and U.S. law. He asked,"Who is Obama going to kill next--Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh?" Beck and Limbaugh are moaning that the Navy Seals killed bin Laden in front of his kids. What will our bloodthirsty President do next? Naturally,Washington has to run around explaining how the hit on bin Laden was legal. Funny, how late in the game people seem to care about legality.

E.J. Dionne writing in today's Washington Post remarks that this event will change the way we look at President Obama from now on. He writes about how his persistence and deliberateness and caution led to making a bold decision. But he does comment that Obama's aide said that "inside there is a very cool, tough, even hard man." Even Chris Matthews in a backhand way praised President Obama as being "cold-blooded".

On the release of the photos, I believe it depends on your age. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, said "This was a professional operation. Let's keep it professional." One argument was that photos would not satisfy the Arab world or the birthers but they could inflame militants in the Middle East. Steve Clemons believes that they should be released to prove bin Laden's dead and the photo that should be released is one of him in a funeral shroud, showing America buried him with Muslim rites.

John Stewart summed up a younger generation's views that the photos should be released. He said that Americans see gorier stuff on all the prime time shows like CSI, the Arabs see the results of our killing Muslims on Al Jezeera and they get to see everyday in person. So what's the problem? Smartass.

Others note that our release of the photos of Saddam Hussein's sons and another Al Qaeda leader in Iraq either were not believed or sparked reprisals against American troops.

I side with Col.Wilkerson. Any release of the photos should actually be used for strategic purposes. It's just fine having Al Qaeda live in limbo wondering whether their leader is alive or dead. After all that's what happened with us. This ambiguity will play to our advantage in the long run. The Arab world has moved on and would just as soon forget the man as they struggle with the issues of how to change their own governments. There has not been a great outcry on the Arab Street about America's actions nor are there demands for proof. Let's leave it alone.

Besides our President is a descended from Wild Bill Hitchcock--Would Wild Bill need trophies?
It's strange to me more people don't pick up on some of the president's more interesting white roots. It seems in this case as well as in the case of the Seals taking out the Somali pirates,this little nugget would be helpful in understanding our President's actions.

I'm afraid the torture freaks had another tough day yesterday. Former military interrogator Matthew Alexander appeared on Democracy Now and explained how torture actually slowed down the hunt for bin Laden. In the long interview, he slipped at one point and mentioned that Al-Libi under torture revealed the name of an Al Qaeda courier that didn't exist and who the intelligence agencies wasted time in trying to track down. Don Rumsfeld's enthusiastic endorsement of waterboarding on the Sean Hannity Show, when he said that KSM produced buckets and buckets of information, was shot down by all the real interrogators. And then John McCain this morning said that waterboarding had nothing to do with catching bin Laden. John noted as I did a couple of days ago that the tortured Al Qaeda people denied knowing the courier.

Col. Wilkerson, whose patience with Rumsfeld and Cheney ran out years ago, said that the reason all these Bush officials have to argue their position is because they are all wanted abroad for war crimes and that they must maintain their original position. As he noted, none of the people you have heard in the last few days extolling torture can fly to Europe. He says they are reduced to travelling to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Now the President is violating the sacred grounds of Ground Zero today, something that conservatives find offensive. They don't appreciate President Obama committing the sacrilege of violating the High Republican Religious Holiday-9/11. The din will get worse next year at the 10th anniversary.

Of course, the meme today is that President George W. Bush isn't coming with President Obama because he's offended that the President didn't give his people the credit they deserved. Naturally, the sources for this story are " people close to the former President's thinking", all of whom believe they themselves should be credited with the success. In all probability, George W. actually thinks that it really is President Obama's day. He's supposed to join him in September for the 10th anniversary.

There has been discussion on the appopriateness about the spontaneous celebrations of bin Laden's death. I noticed that the vast majority of the celebrants were younger people, people who have had to live with daily reminders of how in Laden fundamentally changed American life. My own son was about six years old when bin Laden issued his declaration of war against America. For this generation, his death is a sign that America might turn around now that its arch-enemy is dead. I can't blame them for celebrating.

Frankly, I don't care whether any one at the compound had weapons, whether bin Laden resisted or not, or where his body is. I'll take the 10 hard-drives,the 5 cellphones and the couple dozen flash-drives. You keep the body.