To "Kill and Tell", that is the question.

All good points friend and good questions....

It probably would have been better for all to have kept this under wraps. Better for America, better for US/Pakistani relations, better for US/MidEast relations.

The disjointed narrative in the aftermath is even more fodder for the conspiracy theorists.

At this point, the US government needs to come clean on everything, including the photos of the body. Otherwise, this wound is going to fester for quite a long time.

And Al Qaeda would have absolutely kept his death a secret. There is nothing more debilitating to an organization than admitting that the "leader" has been killed by his arch enemy.

#1 No. We do have the right to know and the need to know. The blood of many sons and daughters was spilled going after this man for the last ten years. The government has no right to hide these types of events from us.

#2 In the short term yes. In the long run no. It is now planted in some minds that we are stubborn and persistent.

#3 Silly question.

#4 If Al Quieda had been the ones to announce his death, I assure you that his demise would have been painted as a picture of selfless martyrdom as he went down in a blaze of glory fighting for the people he so dearly loved.

Now as for being politically correct. I am Owl.

I think advertizing his death is the right thing to do.

I think it does demoralize AQ and will weaken them politically.

I think in the next few months we may see more trouble for them.

They cannot last forever, no terror organization does.

Well, Obama did promise us transparency. This is a totally transparent indication that they are running out of deflections and will play this out as long as possible. Who cares if the pictures are gory? Ever watched T.V.?

I say the gorier the better, provide a graphic illustration of what we do to this type of animal. To the devil with sensitivity and political correctness, this is a war on terror, so let's terrify them and be done with it. We have much more important matters to deal with.

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Would we have been better off, if we didn't say a word about Osama's death ?

No, though it could and should have been handled much much better.

Does advertising his death make it worse for American citizens ?

Why, will it make them hate us more? Not possible!

Would Al Qaeda have kept Osama's Death a secret ?

If we had vaporized the compound and they claimed he was killed we could just deny it. Making their accusations moot.

Would forcing Al Qaeda to bring out the news have been better ? They lie all the time anyway and not everyone likes them.

No they are sub humans and getting them to do something is like a horse, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make them drink.

It has been my contention all along that what should have been done is this:

bin Laden is dead. He was killed in a firefight last night in Pakistan by US Navy Seals. His body was dumped at sea. Justice has been done. End of press conference.

But that's just me.

I've been called "The Town Crier". I don't think that's a virtue, but it is my nature. Generally speaking I would be upfront and honest. In the case of security, I believe in keeping secrets.