Thursday, May 5, 2011

JFK is A-OK, But Nix Osama's Pics?

So, let me get this straight, it’s okay to show the Zapruder film of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, but not to make public the still photos of dead dirt bag Osama bin Laden? The number of ways this is outrageously stupid approaches infinity. Whose feelings are we protecting? Certainly not the feelings of American citizens who have been exposed to violence in the media repeatedly in the past 20 years.

Americans have been subjected to videos of fellow citizens flinging themselves to certain death from the top floors of New York’s Twin Towers, videos of the gaping, deadly wound in the side of the USS Cole, the remains of bombed US embassies strewn with victims in Africa and the beheading video of US journalist Daniel Pearl. We have shown our resilience time and again and the sugar coating just gets in the way.

All of these events can be traced back to Osama bin Laden and his followers. Irony does not begin to cover this circumstance. The body of the creature who brought these vicious attacks to bear, often on unarmed civilians, was treated with respect and dignity after we killed him. So our enemies, stunned by our chivalrous actions will begin to understand the complex morality of the West and begin to see us as “people” and no longer wish to perpetrate unreasoned violence against us. And, in the Left’s fairy tale view of the world, that’s how it would be. Reality; however, is a harsh mistress with death in her eyes and a smile on her lips and cares not for fairy tales.

In case you’re keeping score, as the radical Islamists certainly are, the most important words in the previous paragraph are “we killed him”. That is all they really care about. They don’t care about linen shrouds, Islamic traditions, proper burial rites or a picture. If we had planted bin Laden in a vat of cow patties and released a photo of that, could the radical, murderous fanatics be even more radical, more murderous or more fanatical?

I'm not demanding that anyone release the still photos of a dead Osama bin Laden, but to not release the photos because some of bin Laden's followers might be offended is silly and naive. This homicidal band of thugs seeks the destruction of our civilization, the trampling of our love of our God-given rights and the surrender of our free will. If those who seek bloody injustice are offended by bloody justice, then so be it.

Give President Obama a thumbs-up for pulling the trigger on the operation, give Navy SEAL Team Six a big thumbs-up for pulling the actual triggers, and give President Bush credit for providing the trigger in the first place. Let us continue to honor our war dead and wounded and pray that we are worthy of their sacrifice.

We are a better planet for bin Laden’s absence, but work remains. Before that work is done, before we can claim victory, the blood of more innocents will be shed; more brave American soldiers, sailors and marines will perish protecting our precious rights; and most importantly, we must realize we are in a war about everything we believe, and for everything we hold sacred.

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