Show me no pictures

The media is whining about transparency and the need for "proof." But let's be real, they just want to exploit the images to spike their traffic. The far right is screeching that "those people" behead their victims on teevee and they want to see the mangled body of our conquest. Well, the violence porn fanatics are going to have to just use their imaginations. President Obama decided not to release the dead bin Laden photos.

Mr. Obama was direct in an interview with the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” to be broadcast Sunday, according to a transcript released by the network. “It is very important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence — as a propaganda tool.”

“That’s not who we are,” Mr. Obama added. “You know, we don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.” He said, “We don’t need to spike the football.”

“Certainly there’s no doubt among Al Qaeda members that he is dead,” he said on “60 Minutes.” “And so we don’t think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference. There are going to be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is, you will not see Bin Laden walking on this earth again.”

This strikes me as the correct choice. The only purpose releasing the photos would ultimately serve is as a graphic for recruitment posters for AQ. The photo is the modern day equivalent of displaying a head on a pike. Civilized societies don't parade the corpses of their vanquished foes.