(Warning: This post links to the Wikipedia page about Che Guevara, which contains a disturbing image.)
President Obama has chosen not to release the photos of bin Laden’s body, although they will almost certainly be leaked by somebody, if they haven’t been already.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, there is a serious risk involved with releasing the photos. When the Bolivian government killed Che Guevara, they opted to display his body to the press. Bad idea. People started comparing it to famous depictions of the body of Christ for some reason. We don’t want to spark similar martyring impulses among the radicals. (Then again, why worry what fanatics will think?)
On the other hand, I don’t like the idea of the government withholding information from people. It’s a tough call.
The cynical side of me thinks the photos will be released and the government will be oh so shocked by the leak. I'm sure they will be behind the leaks.Did you notice the name given to the operation?(Geronimo) Not too sensitive, are they?There also was a poll asking if people even believe bin Laden is dead. 5% say he's alive and a shocking 24% have doubts about his death Hmm…
But they showed Mussolini's and Ceausescu's dead bodies to the world, and no-one really cares about them. And there are no images of Hitler's dead body, such that some people think he got away to Argentina or Antarctica, and yet people adulate him. In the end, it is the strength of Usama's ideology that will determine what people think of him. If they think of him as a martyr, they need no image to do so.
The cynical side of me thinks the photos will be released and the government will be oh so shocked by the leak. I'm sure they will be behind the leaks.Did you notice the name given to the operation?(Geronimo) Not too sensitive, are they?There also was a poll asking if people even believe bin Laden is dead. 5% say he's alive and a shocking 24% have doubts about his death Hmm…
But they showed Mussolini's and Ceausescu's dead bodies to the world, and no-one really cares about them. And there are no images of Hitler's dead body, such that some people think he got away to Argentina or Antarctica, and yet people adulate him. In the end, it is the strength of Usama's ideology that will determine what people think of him. If they think of him as a martyr, they need no image to do so.