I don’t want to see the pictures of Usama bin-Laden. But I wish others could see them if they wanted to. The administration has made several decisions that guarantee that a lot people are not going to believe that they killed bin-Laden. First, they tossed him in the sea without letting independent observers take a look at him. Second, they gave conflicting stories about how the operation went down. Third, they had a debate with themselves about whether to release the photos and then decided against it. I think all three decisions are completely defensible. But they add up to a murky, unconvincing picture.
What matters more than the truth here is that the narrative of bin-Laden is over. From the very beginning, any investigation of 9/11 that was carried out by a lawyer for al-Qaeda wasn’t going to be all that convincing. That’s what Bush did when he put Michael Chertoff in charge of the FBI’s investigation. The 9/11 Commission report was almost useless and even its co-chairs have heavily critical of their own product. The result is a cottage industry of conspiracy theorists. That’s not going to change, but they’ve just been given a lot more ammunition.
We’ll never get the real scoop on everything that went down and everyone who was responsible. Relations with the Saudis and Pakistanis had to be protected. Incompetence had to be covered-up.
I think it would be nice if the government could offer some better proof that they killed bin-Laden. But, ultimately, the thing that really matters is that they’ve killed his usefulness as a bogeyman. He won’t be releasing any more tapes, doctored or authentic.
