So Obama has Osama (1) captured, (2) executed while in captivity, (3) photographed, and (4) dumped in the sea.
Okay, now: what reason is there to believe any single one of these points? If your answer is “Because of the government told me so,” then, well, really?
If you grant (1), why did (2) happen?
If you grant (3), why won’t he release the photo? Some transparency there. Oh, but the lack of transparency is in the interest of national security. Ahhhh. But, you know, I feel like I’ve heard someone say that before.
If you grant (4), um, why? I don’t think not burying him immediately would offend Muslims any worse than bombing them and starving them for years.
MORE LIKELY SCENARIOS
1 Bin Laden was already dead.
why it’s plausible Since Tora Bora, there has always been speculation that Osama’s dead. Some people said he had kidney disease, whatever.
why the feds would lie If bin Ladin’s dead, well, there goes the great enemy. So they had reason to keep him alive, so to speak, until they could accrue more power and drop Americans deeper into a state of war-normalcy.
2. Bin Ladin isn’t dead yet.
why it’s plausible Well, there’s no proof of his death beyond the say-so of government agencies. And, although you can technically never have strict proof of anything empirical (any photo could be doctored; a person can be impersonated; your senses can deceive you), nevertheless, at least a reasonable gesture of proof would have been nice.
why the feds would lie Right now (or, before Monday, that is), the perceived legitimacy of the US state and the person of Obama were waning. Libertarian and even anarchist ideas were in growing currency. Ron Paul is the head of that House subcommittee on the Fed. Elements on the Right were even starting to get a little less than enthusiastic about all the money going to these Democrat-waged wars. Know what? That’s over now. USA! USA!
3. Bin Ladin was tortured.
why it’s plausible It’s one reason Dread Lord Obama the Merciful and Compassionate (peace be upon him) might not want to release the photos.
why the feds would lie It might make his liberal cocktail buddies unsettled. But, I don’t know, the Right would adore it. He’d get serious kudos if OBL was flayed alive. The Right, and even Christians today, seem to think that, the more torture, the better.
Option 3 is the least interesting and may combine with the official story, if that’s somehow true.
Count me as leaning toward (1). I guess that makes me a “Deather.”
But, in the end, it doesn’t matter at all. Whether he was alive or wasn’t (or even whether he is now) changes nothing about the policy of our overlords, as I said here.