The main argument for releasing a photograph of the punctured scalp of our enemy is that it will provide proof that bin Laden really is dead. In other words, seeing is believing. But does anyone really believe that any more? Believing is believing. People who want, or need, to believe that bin Laden wasn’t shot dead will have no difficulty believing that a picture of his cadaver is a fake, a simple propaganda trick. The release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate didn’t put an end to birtherism, so why would the release of bin Laden’s autopsy video put an end to deatherism? And why does the White House care to appease the holders of such delusions?
I've seen some people put forth the notion, if you favored the release of the Abu Ghraib pics how can you be against the release of the bin Laden pics?
Well, one -- people needed to see in order to believe that ultimately we as a nation allowed torture, without the pictures there would have been no reason to own it, to stop it. The same with the results of dead civilians we, or others have killed, the pictures are powerful BECAUSE of the damage, they humanize inhumanity. That is not a gift bin Laden deserves, any more than dead Hitler. Mussolini hanging dead, beaten, shot and otherwise abused and bloated at a Milan gas station made him more sympathetic when he did not deserve it, not less. Same with the Ceaușescus.
We don't need to see his corpse to own the notion that we killed the guy primarily responsible for a terrorist act to come to grips with the need for it.
Yes, we see gruesome images all the time -- but I for one, find it hard to picture Kennedy without the Zapruder film in my head; it's hard to picture Martin Luther King without him laying in a pool of blood on the walkway of the Lorraine Motel. Those are tragic images of great humans, or at least a hell of a lot closer than Osama -- I don't need another image seared into my brain to put bin Laden up with those two in my memory bank, he doesn't deserve it.
I suppose this seems somewhat naive to some -- the picture will almost certainly come up one way or another -- but fuck 'em I don't need it to affirm my feelings, justify shit, shock me about war, or masturbate to (see your average FoxNews viewer or host).