[This post was originally published on The Living Room Tumblr.]
I don’t understand why the Obama Administration is correcting the record about the details of the Osama raid. I guess this will make me sound cynical, but the notion of Osama hiding behind a woman was incredibly effective propaganda – who cares whether it’s true? Was anyone going to be able to contradict it? If not, why change the story to the truth?!
Likewise, aren’t we far better off with people thinking Osama was armed than thinking he wasn’t? As soon as you’re in the position of contending that an unarmed man was “resisting,” you’re already in a defensive crouch in terms of your argument, even if you’re 100% right. Again, did the world really need to know that he was unarmed? Was someone going to step forward and contradict the original account? I’m all about honesty in government, but c’mon, a few little white lies in the service of wartime propaganda here wouldn’t hurt anyone…
P.S. I substituted “Obama” for “Osama” in the first three references in this post, then noticed my error and fixed it. Heh. #PANIC!