Debra Burlingame, the sister of pilot Charles “Chic” Burlingame III whose plane was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon on 9/11, discussed with Neil Cavuto today yesterday President Barack Obama’s decision to not release Osama bin Laden’s death photos and to give him a respectful sea burial.
Before watching the video, consider this: America is allegedly at war against al Qaeda and its violent affiliates; Obama (and Bush before him) is not at war alone against this enemy. Killing bin Laden was a major tactical victory and we, America, needed to use it to demoralize the enemy towards total victory. And we needed to exploit whatever intelligence that was gathered during the operation. So, what did this adminstration do? They bragged about the kinds of intelligence gathered at the scene for the sole purpose of domestic political popularity and undermined the intelligence value of what was gathered. Obama and his administration deserve condemnation for putting their political aspirations ahead of the interests of protecting the American people and defeating the enemy.
Obama has stated that al Qaeda’s ideology is “a perversion of Islam,” bin Laden “murdered Muslims on September 11,” and the latter “was not a Muslim leader.” Why give a perverted, mass-murdering, non-Muslim a religious ceremony in line with Muslim tradition?
Nothing has been found of 1,125 of those slaughtered on 9/11; their families had no body to respectfully prepare, to pray over, or to properly lay to rest. My wife lost her brother that day. I would have bagged bin Laden up, weighed him down, and tossed him over the side with the garbage.
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