Although Eugene Robinson concedes that his secondary argument for releasing the bin Laden photos is the exponentially weaker one, he also commits a rookie mistake in its defense: "photographic evidence would silence most, but not all, of the conspiracy theorists."
The only truth of all conspiracy theories is that any contrary evidence proffered -- photographic, documentary, eyewitness, circumstantial, logical -- is not only insufficient in disproving the conspiracy, it's actually greater proof of the conspiracy itself and further confirmation of the sinister cover-up. Conspiracy theories are like the Borg: they assimilate every assault and grow stronger with every blow; the more one untangles, the more there is to obfuscate and retangle.
As just one recent but glaring example, this subliterate email, from TeaParty.org, arrived in my plucky inbox yesterday:
It is becoming apparent the Birth Certificate which Mr. Obama presented to the public as a "true and accurate copy of the original" is neither. As a matter of fact, many are claiming it is a fraud! Forensic specialists have examined the publicly displayed Obama Birth Certificate and are claiming it is a poorly created dummy document, a fake!
It goes on. Oh, does it ever go on. Hawaii's governor, Neil Abercrombie, is of course now implicated, but that ain't the half of it.
The document in question could possibly represent hundreds, or even thousands, of fraudulent birth certificates used to commit a plethora of crimes. Crimes such as credit fraud, passport fraud and possibly has created a hidden pathway, which illegal aliens have trod for years, as they nefariously enter into the United States and pose as citizens.
Nuts, you say? Well of course it is. Yet the Birther lunacy is no nuttier than the imbecilic notion held by hordes of unhinged Truthers that Dick and George wired and detonated the Twin Towers, or any laughably lunatic variation thereof. Have both theoretical schools of "thought" been dismantled decisively and conclusively? Yep. Has that "silenced" them, as Robinson predicts photographs would the bin Laden conspiracists?
Robinson's principal argument for the photos' release, however -- and by the way, I don't mean to pick on Eugene; it's just that he neatly compresses the prosecution's case for release -- is just as weak: "The reason to display the photos is to show bin Laden for what he really was: not a holy warrior, not a holy anything, but a deluded mass murderer who met the end he so richly deserved." This pictorial end, argues Robinson, "would have disillusioned and deflated ... some jihadists and wannabes."
This reasoning I find even more mystifying than the belief that conspiracy theorists can, in part or in whole, ever be satisfied. If the photographic evidence of the insanely vast destruction of innocent human life wrought by bin Laden 10 years ago failed to disillusion "jihadists and wannabes" as to the perpetrator's "holiness," then I doubt that a glossy, 8X10 postmortem epitaph signed by President Obama would.
Disappointing piece from Eugene.
Posted by: Alli | May 05, 2011 at 09:13 AM
I meant to add that he sounds like Palin who also demanded the photos so that other jihadists can see what would happen to them.
Posted by: Alli | May 05, 2011 at 09:15 AM
There are valid national security concerns that warrant that these photos not be released to the public. I choose national security over national curiosity from the navel gazers. Should these photos have been released and there had been negative consequences, the rw would have wasted no time blaming President Obama. They would have conveniently forgotten that it was what they had been clamoring for. With the rw these days, everything is political. Robinson should rethink his position on this one. There's no excuse for him to pretend that he doesn't know the type of political climate the rw has created in this country at this time in history. I rate his column on this one to be an epic fail.
Posted by: majii | May 05, 2011 at 09:53 AM
It also gave her a chance to demean the President's manhood. I mean, "pussyfooting"? Really?
What a small, spiteful junior high mean girl she is.
Posted by: janicket | May 05, 2011 at 09:54 AM
If those photos had been released, at this moment on Fox News someone would be braying about how we need to waterboard OBL to get info, and Obama's failure to do so shows what a weakling he is - now that the military snatched OBL for him, he doesn't have the balls to do what is needed.
Or something like that...
Posted by: Mark Tyson | May 05, 2011 at 08:36 PM