Death and Taxes

I was lying in bed playing a game on my iPod when my wife came to the door and said "Somebody just posted a message on Facebook that Bin Laden was dead!"  I leaped from bed and immediately flew to my computer to see what news there was on this longest of overdue headlines - sure enough, CBS Up-To-The-Minute was reporting that Osama Bin Laden was dead!


To be honest... I thought Bin Laden was already dead.  It had been reported that he suffered from a kidney ailment and needed the close proximity of a dialysis machine.  I reasoned that he could not be hiding in the mountainous regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan because of medical reasons, but I never would have thought that he would be inside of a populated area.  And then, there is the video of a British correspondent talking with Bhutto three months before she was assassinated - during the course of an interview, she mentions that Bin Laden had been killed !


I am one of the few that believe only half of what I see and even less of what I hear.  I am not going to go out on a limb and say that the President is misinformed, that our troops are misinformed, nor will I dismiss the possibly that its totally true.  What bothers me is the dumping of the body at sea... why would you do that?  I am sure that tissue samples, pictures and fingerprints were taken, but why would you dump the body at sea?  Were we trying to adhere to Muslim custom of burial within twenty-four hours of death?


Bin Laden's body could have been sent to his family in Saudi Arabia.  I am sure that his relatives, who have secretly returned to the United States, would accept delivery to them of his remains.  Did we want to make sure that he would never rise from the dead - why would you dump the body at sea?  I don't get it!  More than likely though the answer is... no one wanted the 'martyred' body of a terrorist interned on their country's soil - it would be a magnet for terrorist and devoted followers!


Most assuredly, I am indeed proud and grateful to the NAVY SEALS for their dedicated professionalism in bring this terrorist to justice!  Bravo Zulu shipmates!

In a democracy, silence is not golden; it is condonance in the face of injustices; it is fear, where the thought of reprisal fosters control – Rodney A. Davis