The government may release video of Osama's funeral. Allahpundit is aghast:
If the point is to get rid of the body as semi-respectfully as possible and return Bin Laden to afterthought status, why would you circulate a video of the burial that guarantees the scene will live forever? Plus, you’re bound to make some group angry. If the clip shows U.S. sailors behaving solemnly, it’ll irritate Americans that they were forced to give this monster a dignified end. If the clip shows them laughing and high-fiving (presumably it doesn’t or else the vid wouldn’t be released), then you’ll create exactly the sort of backlash in the Middle East that the sea burial was designed to avoid.
Philip Gourevitch is also against the release of photos:
ABC News is reporting that the first image of bin Laden that the White House may show us is “bloody and gruesome, with a bullet wound to his head above his left eye.” If it’s released, this is the image that will instantly supplant every other account of Sunday’s raid as the iconic representation of America’s moment of triumph over its most wanted enemy. Is that what we want—the official equivalent of the Saddam hanging video? Did we learn nothing from the past decade about the overwhelming power of crude images of violence to define and polarize our historical moment?
The Dish 