Photographs and Bad Memories

President Obama has decided not to release photographs of a dead Osama bin Laden to the press, citing how he doesn't want to be seen as holding up trophies. He thinks that the only thing the photos would accomplish would be to incite reprisals by rogue radical Muslims. Although many Americans are demanding the release of the photos as proof of bin Laden's demise - apparently they want to squelch rumors that he escaped to Lesotho and is now living with Jim Morrison - Obama doesn't believe they will convince anyone anyway and besides, they're too gruesome. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews voiced support for Obama's decision, pointing out that the photos would inevitably appear in the news media, and he also said that placing photos of dead people in newspapers is something the print media don't do.

Apparently Matthews forgot about the December 10, 1980 issue of the New York Post, which featured John Lennon's morgue photo on the front page.

Meanwhile, I couldn't fathom why the Obama administration would actually refer to bin Laden by the code name of "Geronimo." Didn't they think Native Americans would be offended? Sure enough, they're demanding an apology from the government for using the Apache warrior's name as a code name for bin Laden. The administration said it meant no disrespect toward Indians, saying that the code name was randomly chosen to obfuscate the mission against bin Laden. It's been pointed out that Geronimo - whose name somehow became a code word for ejecting from airplanes - was famous for evading U.S. and Mexican troops while on the run, but he's regarded as a hero for fighting for his people. Well, he is. The Postal Service even immortalized his role in American history with a stamp in 1994. We don't put terrorists on postage stamps, do we?

We don't put Nazis on stamps either, yet we somehow (coincidentally, of course) named a 1998 bombing raid on Iraq Operation "Desert Fox," which was the nickname of German World War II general Erwin Rommel, known for his exploits in North Africa. The Clinton administration had to issue a statement insisting that no anti-Semitism was intended.

The use of Native American nomenclature to refer to bin Laden, though, reminds us of the fact that, while America may be a land of opportunity for dudes like Barack Obama and John Boehner, the first peoples of this continent sadly remain afterthoughts in a nation not created for them.