As IF Times

link News from The Associated Press.

This is what happens when we are consistently fed stories which are distorted, exaggerated or outright faked.  The more people get used to hearing stories of unmasked lies,  the less they believe anything at all.  The big consequence of distortions fed to the public is rampant cynicism.

Even in this particular case, the details of what happened when the U.S. Navy Seals dispatched Osama to his 72 virgins are already muddy. It’s debatable whether there will ever be an accurate version of what went down.   Discount the fact that it was a military operation, so  of course some details will be blurred out.  Even if presented with the same set of visual evidence, people will come to different convictions as to what transpired.  It doesn’t help that there are already variant official versions.  He was armed.  Then he wasn’t.  He was using women as a shield.  Then they were in the next room.  It’s not that these tidbits are germane to the result, but the question is, why have any variant versions at all? 

Apparently, they will issue official photos of our hero, post meeting with the Seals, in the hopes of confirming his demise.  Good enough for me.  The Seals aren’t in the bs business.  But with the sophistication of photo manipulation these days, who knows?  It could just be a mildly doctored pic of Charlie Sheen after a bender. There will always be doubters and conspiracy theorists conjuring up possible scenarios.   Is it just natural for people to be skeptical?  Or is it conditioning from the constant stream of propaganda and skew that comes from politicians and the media?   Maybe the former, but over the years, it has become more and more evident that opinions are framed by the media as much as by the facts themselves.  Is it just to sell newspapers? Or  are there darker agendas?

The greatest irony of our times is that despite the  sheer amount of information that’s available and accessible to all, it’s maddeningly difficult to determine what is fact and what is flotsam.  Who knows, in the next while, we could get a release of tape coming from someone who purports to be Bin Laden, claiming that the guy shot was actually a twin brother as if in some preposterous John Woo movie. 

For now, I’ll believe the Seals.

link Bin Laden threatens Americans with execution | Reuters.

What to do, what to do.  If everyone just goes about minding their own business, the Taliban will attack them, flying planes into buildings etc..  If the terrorists are pursued on their home turf, the Taliban will attack them.  If we capture an antagonist, have him admit his guilt and then threaten to execute him, the Taliban will attack.  Their folk are just downright hard to please.  On the other hand, if our hero Bin Laden is still alive and issuing threats, which I doubt, how seriously do you take them considering he’s hiding out in some subterranean cave with no air, cable or indoor plumbing?

I’m not sure what news value there is to broadcast the latest threat to the world from public enemy number one.  I can see the value for the terrorists since they delude others to believe that OBL is actually alive and con other recruits to catch American bombs barehanded.  It’s been almost 9 years since that infamous day in September when the Americans were blindsided by the co-ordinated attacks by hijacked airliners.  Innumerate fighters on both sides have been killed during the subsequent military campaign to find or kill the iconic terrorist.  Because of lack of hard evidence to prove his demise, the world is treated to the occasional “still here!” missive from OBL’s camp and the fighting continues.

It may occur to someone one day that the people shooting back at the American led forces may just be people who hate Americans, even without the figurehead OBL issuing the orders.  There certainly is no shortage of those people in the world, even in America it seems.  Someone has be continuing to supply the other side with bullets, guns and RPG’s.  When you consider the billions of dollars it costs the Americans every year to fight, imagine the drain on the people backing OBL’s team.  It makes a lot more sense to have people on our side digging around tracking money flows and arms suppliers.  I’m sure this is happening now and most likely,  the tracks lead not to caves but to banks, industrial companies and certainly nation states.  The best soldiers we have may turn out to be accountants.  We’re all waiting for the day when the money spigot finally gets turned off and the Taliban are out of money.  I’d love to be there in that cave in the near future when an underling comes in to inform the Smelly One, “um, bad news your Shiekness, we’re out of bullets and food.  I’m going home to mom.  Can you get your own ride back?”