Pres. Obama has decided against releasing the pictures of Osama bin Laden. I personally wish he would, but in regard to Islamic sensibilities, it's not a bad decision. The fact is, the photos very well could tip those on the fence into the jihadi camp. The Islamic world is not simply Arabs. It is a multitude of different ethnic groups, with its' own different sects.
The various ethnic groups who practice Islam in the Central Asian mountain regions are often very peaceable people. However, they have a very strong warrior ethic, with very defined honor codes. Something that could be seen as arrogant could very well tip the balance in Central Asia.
Arabs do have a certain respect for strength, however, there are elements of the various Arab groups that would be provoked by such pictures, without regard as to whether they would have been jihadis before. It's a fine line to walk.
The other thing is that people have been talking about the religious elements of bin Laden's burial at sea. I completely agree with this. Bin Laden may have been a mass murderer, but there are many who consider him a very devout Muslim. Pres. Obama never said he wasn't a Muslim, he said he wasn't a Muslim leader. So again we have a fine line that is easily crossed.
I also want to address those who say we should have cooperated with Pakistan to arrest him. It wasn't possible. Period. The ISI is completely outside the control of the civil government of Pakistan, so if we had tried to coordinate with them, they would have tipped off and moved bin Laden to somewhere else. It's that simple. He was offered the chance to surrender before he was shot. Whether or not we took him dead or alive was unimportant. Osama bin Laden being taken out of the game is what was important. He's gone. Any documents he had in that compound are now in our possession. The operation was a complete success. It would not surprise me in the least if in the next year we did have half of Al Qaida shut down. There's no saying on my end what was in the compound. I don't need to know right now, I don't want to know until we've exhausted every last iota of valuable intelligence in those documents.
There might yet be a few videos of bin Laden that Al Qaida will release in the near future, but I won't believe them. I do believe what my military leadership tells me, because if it is proven they are lying, it would destroy the credibility of the US Government and military.
The various ethnic groups who practice Islam in the Central Asian mountain regions are often very peaceable people. However, they have a very strong warrior ethic, with very defined honor codes. Something that could be seen as arrogant could very well tip the balance in Central Asia.
Arabs do have a certain respect for strength, however, there are elements of the various Arab groups that would be provoked by such pictures, without regard as to whether they would have been jihadis before. It's a fine line to walk.
The other thing is that people have been talking about the religious elements of bin Laden's burial at sea. I completely agree with this. Bin Laden may have been a mass murderer, but there are many who consider him a very devout Muslim. Pres. Obama never said he wasn't a Muslim, he said he wasn't a Muslim leader. So again we have a fine line that is easily crossed.
I also want to address those who say we should have cooperated with Pakistan to arrest him. It wasn't possible. Period. The ISI is completely outside the control of the civil government of Pakistan, so if we had tried to coordinate with them, they would have tipped off and moved bin Laden to somewhere else. It's that simple. He was offered the chance to surrender before he was shot. Whether or not we took him dead or alive was unimportant. Osama bin Laden being taken out of the game is what was important. He's gone. Any documents he had in that compound are now in our possession. The operation was a complete success. It would not surprise me in the least if in the next year we did have half of Al Qaida shut down. There's no saying on my end what was in the compound. I don't need to know right now, I don't want to know until we've exhausted every last iota of valuable intelligence in those documents.
There might yet be a few videos of bin Laden that Al Qaida will release in the near future, but I won't believe them. I do believe what my military leadership tells me, because if it is proven they are lying, it would destroy the credibility of the US Government and military.
I personally think that wether the photos are shown or not there would still be conspiracy theorists and those who do not believe. And I commend Pres. Obama for not releasing them and giving this man what little dignity he could. We do not need to see them, and it only hardens us to sites of death. (not that we don't get that in TV and video games---but thats another discussion entirely) I think we all need to have faith and trust that he is in fact deceased and that we did in fact do it. I have no doubt that dead was the only way he would cooperate and I trust that our American Soldiers used their best judgement in if / when to shoot. And agree he would have fled if we had cooperated with pakistan, this needed to be and was a very top secret mission.
ReplyDeleteI pray that he did have sensitive information in his compound and that it is key to ending this war.