Whether or not you think he got off easy is irrelevant. The ramifications would be huge in the Arab world if it was found out that was the case. For the record I'm sure the POTUS had a good reason not to release the photos, so I'll go with it (not that I have a choice)
The whole, "if he was executed, this is gonna be way worse" thing doesn't make any sense at all. Why would the ramifications be any bigger than they are now? Dead is dead. Any way you look at it, he was executed. An American shot him dead. Why does how it happened make that much of a difference? Do you think they'd (the hypothetical "they") be any less pissed if he went down shooting? What if we took him alive? What about his capture wouldn't enrage "them" enough to retaliate based on that?
Rest assured, the photos will almost certainly be leaked eventually. The administration simply wants nothing to do with their release, and for good reason. That's just sound politics.
For anyone who is interested, Reuters has obtained graphic photos of the other, non-Osama guys killed during the raid. Apparently they were taken by a Pakistani official who entered the compound shortly after. NSFW http://www.reuters.com/subjects/bin-laden-compound
Well it was only a matter of time, the first pictures have leaked. Here's an alleged pic of Osamas son from the compound: Warning: VERY GRAPHIC Spoiler Source: The Guardian UK
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say, emphatically, that we will see those pictures at some point. It might be months or years, but they will get out. Possibly by WikiLeaks. I dont even really care to see them, other than to say I saw them. Kind of like Saddam's hanging. What I do want to see is a video representation of what went down. I don't expect or want live video, but a computer generated walk-thru of sorts. What happened was so badass that I'd like to see how it went down. And speaking of pictures. Until its leaked by "credible" sources, and even if they are, no one will ever believe it. To wit: Pretty sure these are fake. But you never know. NSFW
Freaking awesome! Anyways, I haven't posted in this topic before now, but I was overjoyed when the news about Osama getting a bullet in his head came out. A true victory for the United States and a major accomplishment for the Obama presidency. Hell, I can't think of a single death that would have made me happier. It's great to know that evil butchers still get their comeuppance. By the way, shooting Osama in the head instead of taking him alive was a great decision. See, had the US taken him captive, terrorists the world over would be taking their own hostages and starting attacks to "free Osama". With him safely in the ground, it's no longer a concern. As for a "backlash", the people who worshipped Osama in the Middle East already hate the US and are actively working to destroy it. As for everyone else, they're just happy another mad butcher was put to sleep, permanently.
So we only get photos of black helicopters and a few random brown people? Way not to fan the conspiracy fires Mr President! As much as I don't want military personnel killed or put into harms way because of the pictures (Id say this is more serious than flag draped drunk college students), but they should be shown as a matter of public fucking record.
He's not spiking the football. And I understand it completely. Do you really want him to incite a bunch of already religious fanatics into more destruction by showing the aftermath? Until you've had to stand over a dead body, and realize what has happened, whether you did it or not, please, show some common decency.
I'll echo Beefy in saying that I'll be shocked if those pictures don't eventually find their way on to the internet. But that being said, regardless of how you feel about seeing the pictures, it would have put the US in a terrible position if they were released with the White House's blessing. Al Qaeda and any other Islamic terrorist group will hate us no matter what happens, but having the government release the photos will just be used to drum up more anger and negative feelings in the Muslim world and create more support for those groups. I would love to see the photos released eventually, if for no other reason than to shut up the idiot conspiracy theorists. But publishing them through official government channels would likely do more harm than good.
Did anyone else notice the first two pictures here weren't quite right? http://www.reuters.com/subjects/bin-laden-compound I'm no helicopter expert, but that doesn't look like it came from a Chinook. Looks like a tail rotor from a civilian chopper. The brick wall in the first two pictures is also different from the rest of them. I'm thinking those pictures were of some other helicopter crash and Reuters just threw those in there thinking nobody would know any different. Also, I'd like to think the mission went down something like this:
Fuck bin Laden and fuck common decency toward him. If the fanatics don't like like the pictures then fuck them too, we have plenty of bullets to go around. The notion that simply releasing pictures of a dead body creates more terrorists or causes much more violence, shows a frightening misunderstanding of fanaticism that many people share.
Is that a green water gun sticking out from underneath him? Talk about saving a few bucks on the throwdown gun.
Why do you think the "Muslim world" would feel "anger" over pictures of a dead Bin Laden? Are you saying that Osama Bin Laden represents the "Muslim world", or is a hero to them? And how would this possibly create more support for terrorists, when it would be showing the most prominent terrorist in the world with a bullet in his brain, stone cold dead by the might of the US military? I'm totally fine with not publishing the photos of his corpse, mind you, but these rationalizations are almost as ridiculous as the conspiracy theories about Osama still being alive.
Moreover, I would expect the anger over the photo release to be a great deal less than anger over, say, actions in Iraq, drone warfare, or bin Laden's death itself.
How can anyone honestly think that OBL is not dead? If OBL was still alive, don't you think he'd send out a message saying, "Hey guys! The US is a bunch of fuckwits! I'm still alive!" Reminds me of the 9/11 was an inside job people, no amount of logic and factual evidence will make them think otherwise.