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The debate over President Obama's decision to withhold Osama bin Laden's postmortem photograph will likely play out for years unless the president changes his mind or the photos are leaked online. But Obama's detractors aren't wasting any time throwing any and all arguments at the White House to put it on the defensive or throw it off guard. There are reasonable arguments to publish the photo, and not so reasonable arguments. Since cable news is filling up with heated debates, we thought we'd offer a score card. Happy haranguing, America!
How will the world know he's dead? The first U.S. senator to throw in this argument was Lindsey Graham. "I know bin Laden is dead. But the best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world,” said the South Carolina Republican on Wednesday. “The whole purpose of sending our soldiers into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable proof of bin Laden’s death."
How will the Middle East know he's dead? A couple fast headlines on Drudge Report point to stories of Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan refusing to believe the Al-Qaeda leader is dead. Ditto for the Taliban, which issued a statement saying "The Americans have not shown any credible evidence of Sheikh Usama's death, and his death has not been confirmed."