Conspiracy Theories

            It seems to me that Americans love a good conspiracy even when there is no call for one.

The web is abuzz with questions surrounding the White House’s refusal to release pictures of a very dead Osama Bin Laden. Some Americans have concluded that it is just another indicator that Osama Bin Laden really isn’t dead and our government must be lying to the public. After all we did show pictures of the very dead Uday and Qusay Hussein not to mention Saddam himself and they weren’t nearly as hated as Osama Bin Laden.

So why not show pictures of Bin Laden with one to the head? Conspiracy theorists will tell you it has got to be because U.S. commandos really didn’t kill him Sunday night.

What I can’t seem to get from the theorists is a straight and logical answer as to why the government would fake Osama Bin Laden’s death?

The most popular answer for the time being is, “…to help President Obama get reelected.” Of course this begs the question why now and not right before the election when it would probably do the most good. With the current state of gas prices, unemployment and the deficit any good propaganda Osama’s death generates for the Obama campaign will most assuredly be drowned out by election time under a sea of economic reality.

Additionally it seems to me that a living Bin Laden would most likely want to come out and show that he is still alive to really stick it to America. Nothing as of yet but to believe the theorists it should be coming.

While the “Osama isn’t dead” silliness is gaining some velocity on the web the possibility of a very real conspiracy is playing itself out at the State Department between the U.S. and Pakistan.

There will be some hard questions asked of Pakistan and its intelligence service as we begin to analyze how our partner in the War on Terror and beneficiary of billions of dollars in aid managed to allow the most wanted man in the world to live 40 miles outside the capital and a stone’s throw from an army base without anyone noticing. Pakistan has been calling for a halt to U.S. Predator drone strikes and incursions into their country but events with Bin Laden seem to make acquiescing to these demands counter-intuitive. This all adds up to the very real possibility of a deterioration of our relationship with Pakistan and an added complication for our war in Afghanistan.

Ohh well, maybe when Osama comes out of hiding he and the Easter Bunny can tell us how they pulled it off.