{"id":1965,"date":"2011-05-05T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1965"},"modified":"2011-05-05T06:00:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-05T12:00:41","slug":"sensitivities-transparency-a-terrorists-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1965","title":{"rendered":"Sensitivities, Transparency & a Terrorist’s Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The emerging facts surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs have clouded what should have been a clearcut victory in the war on terrorism.\u00a0 With each passing day, the Obama Administration seems to be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.\u00a0 The latest developments, including\u00a0Obama’s decision not to release photos of a very dead\u00a0OBL<\/a>\u00a0and CIA Director Leon Panetta’s\u00a0stunning admission that there\u00a0was a 25-minute gap in video coverage of the raid that\u00a0killed bin Laden<\/a>, have heightened the scrutiny behind the daring raid carried out this past Sunday.<\/p>\n

I personally have no doubt that bin Laden was killed in a firefight inside his compound\u00a0in Abbottabad, Pakistan.\u00a0 However, with an opportunity to practice transparency — something that President Obama promised prior to his election<\/a>\u00a0— and to definitively\u00a0prove to the American people and the rest of the\u00a0world that bin Laden is dead,\u00a0this Administration has fumbled the football on the one inch line.\u00a0 Whether or not you agree that photos of the badly bloodied corpse of bin Laden should be released, the way in which this Administration has arrived at their decision not to release the photos shows a not-quite-ready-for-primetime atmosphere and an hypocrisy that seems to know no limits.<\/p>\n

In a bow to Muslim sensitivities, the President has decided against releasing the photos of bin Laden<\/a>.\u00a0 In\u00a0an\u00a0earlier bow to these same sensitivities, the body of Osama was disposed\u00a0of at sea, apparently in accordance with some interpretations of Islamic law.\u00a0 In his speech on Sunday, the President further\u00a0bowed to the Muslim world when he repeated the Bush Administration’s tired clich\u00e9\u00a0that we are “not at war with Islam.”\u00a0 Some might get the idea that President Obama has a bowing problem.<\/p>\n

We may not be at war with Islam, but\u00a0it appears that a\u00a0sizeable portion of the Islamic world is at war with America and the west.\u00a0 Are\u00a0most Muslims terrorists or terrorist sympathizers?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Are the overwhelming majority of American Muslims peace-loving citizens?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 But to try to\u00a0pretend that a large segment of radicalized Muslims in some countries have less than flattering thoughts about the United States — regardless of whether we release photos or not — is to simply deny reality.\u00a0 In some parts of the world, the death of Osama bin Laden was enough to stir anti-American sentiment.<\/a>\u00a0 Of course, America’s friendship with Israel is cause enough for some to hate America.<\/p>\n

But, here’s the problem with Obama’s bows to these religious sensitivities — he appears not to apply the same standard to the American people.\u00a0 The President apparently has no problems allowing the\u00a0coffins of our returning dead\u00a0military heroes to be photographed at Dover.<\/a>\u00a0 The President initially had no problems with the release of thousands of pictures from the Abu Ghraib mess<\/a>\u00a0(although he subsequently reversed course).\u00a0 When it comes to sensitivities and transparency, this President has shifting standards.\u00a0 Too bad that his shifts seem to be at the expense of the American people while benefitting a radicalized population that will never like America — unless we sit idly by while Israel is wiped off the face of the map.\u00a0 Even then, America will get no love from the more radicalized elements within the Arab world.<\/p>\n

Did Osama bin Laden represent a\u00a0relatively small group of radicalized Muslims who had hijacked\u00a0Islam and its true tenants?\u00a0 Did bin Laden\u00a0so twist Islam’s teachings that he would not be worthy to be considered a “good” Muslim?\u00a0 If bin Laden did not speak for “true” Muslims, then why would this Administration bow to the sensitivities\u00a0of the Muslim world so as to decide to\u00a0give him a “proper” Muslim burial or decide not to release\u00a0photos of OBL?<\/p>\n

You can’t have it both ways.\u00a0 Either bin Laden was a rogue Muslim (much like Timothy McVeigh was a rogue Christian)\u00a0who did not nor could not represent true Islam in any form or fashion and therefore was considered a pariah OR he was a true Muslim who represented the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of more than just\u00a0a few\u00a0members of Al-Qaeda.\u00a0 Which is it, Mr. President?<\/p>\n

President Obama can choose to block the release of the photos and can keep changing the story about the historic raid that killed Osama bin Laden.\u00a0 But, the President cannot continue to redefine transparency.\u00a0 With the amateurish way that the political operatives\u00a0within the Obama Administration have bungled the aftermath of this historic raid, is it any wonder why people continue to question Mr. Obama.\u00a0 And, if he thinks that laying a wreath at Ground\u00a0Zero will\u00a0put an end to the questions, he may not be as smart as he and others think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The emerging facts surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs have clouded what should have been a clearcut victory in the war on terrorism.\u00a0 With each passing day, the Obama Administration seems to be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.\u00a0 The latest developments, including\u00a0Obama’s decision not to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,29,34,35],"tags":[53,75,462,3388,533,603,685,750,756,3391,801,820,996,1015],"class_list":["post-1965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-islam","category-politics","category-religion","tag-abbottabad","tag-al-qaeda","tag-ground-zero","tag-islam","tag-israel","tag-leon-panneta","tag-muslim","tag-osama-bin-laden","tag-pakistan","tag-politics","tag-president-obama","tag-radical-islam","tag-transparency","tag-u-s-navy-seals"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-vH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}