Then as far as I can tell, the US has already violated the burial rituals, since the preference is to be buried on earth. He was killed on the ground, not at sea, so they had to either put him on a ship and sail out a few miles, or dump him out of a helicopter.
If it is feared that an enemy may dig up the grave and exhume the dead body and amputate its ears or nose or other limbs, it should be lowered into sea. . .
It is perfectly reasonable for the U.S. to claim that there was sufficient fear that his body would be dug up and desecrated in some way, to justify the burial at sea.
I think the fear was that his fans would turn his grave into a shrine, not that his enemies would defile the body (which I’m sure would happen if he were buried in the US).
I also heard a report that we couldn’t find a country willing to allow bin Laden to be buried within its borders.
AK84 is a resident of Pakistan and his post has legitimate concerns and he is merely pointing out that they are more likely to affect him than they are the majority of us on this board as we are mostly Americans.
Of course that was the actual fear. What I said was that it’s not unreasonable to make the claim that there was fear of desecration, as well (as I’m sure there was).
I don’t doubt that somebody claimed this, but I’m really doubtful that we asked anybody. Given the time frame of his death, the public announcement of it, and then his burial, I don’t think there was time even if someone thought of it. More likely they decided there wasn’t going to be any possible burial “shrine” a long time ago.
I think whether this burial is going to be considered appropriate by moderate Muslims will be one of the more interesting questions to be answered over the next few days.
Yeah, geez, I hope we don’t offend anyone with the manner in which we dispose of his corpse.
mmm
Well maybe I read it wrong , I’ll concede that.
Not up to the Dope’s usual high standards, huh?
To be fair, it’s important for America to demonstrate that we’re only at war with al-Qaeda, not with Islam itself.
As tempting as it is to dismember OBL’s body and place his head on a pike outside the Rose Garden, to do so would only anger people of the Islamic faith. Disposing of OBL’s remains in a respectful manner (although a secret burial at sea does seem rather suspicious) allows the U.S.A. to take the moral high ground, and may help prevent the moral outrage created by the GWB Administration when they displayed photos of Saddam Hussein’s dead sons on the cover of TIME magazine.
Naturally, it’s merely a political maneuver, but that’s a critical factor which we ignore at our own peril.
This animated gif of Obama is how his speech last night should have gone: http://www.yasrsly.com/obamas-speech-hes-dead-gif/511331/
Fucking badass!
There’s also this pic of Obama…PRICELESS!
http://www.yasrsly.com/obamas-speech-sorry-it-took-so-long/511336/
I know, Buddha, I totally get it. It just seems absurd to engage a discussion about being cautious to treat his body with respect and dignity; because we, you know, stormed his compound and put a bullet in his eye and all that.
mmm
The burial at sea is to prevent his grave from being a shrine.
So has the Gerald Ford executive order against assassination been formally revoked?
CNN is talking to a couple of retired Navy Seals. They put small graphics up with each mans CV. One, Eric Greitens, was just astonishing:
BA, Duke Univ
Rhodes Scholar
MA, Ph.D. Oxford Univ
CEO The Mission Continues
Awarded Bronze Star,
Purple Heart
…so that would be Doctor Bad-Ass Killing Machine to you.
Tom Clancy once said “Of course someone could get an atomic bomb into the country – they’d just have to put it in a big crate marked ‘cocaine.’”