the need to know

When Osama bin Laden was fatally shot by members of US Special Forces it was hardly surprising that people wanted photographic proof of his death. This can partly be explained by the fact that the USA is an image culture, and a culture of revelation. On the whole we need to see to believe.

But there are also those who feel that they need to see the picture not because they doubt the authenticity of US intelligence, but because the spectacle of bin Laden's death encapsulates a new 9/11 narrative in which America is no longer scared, distrustful and hurt but victorious.

Accounts of bin Laden's recent life and death are heavily detailed. We know that he drank Pepsi, watched satellite television, slept in bed with his young wife, took walks within the walls of his compound. He had a cow and a hundred or more chickens. He ate eggs, nuts, dates and dried meat. He had central heating. He was a man and like all men he was mortal. On May 1st two bullets proved that.

But what of the men who fired those guns? The mysterious Seal Team 6, made up of unknown men from the Naval Special Warfare division, the team that does not officially exist. They are an elite counter-terrorism squad - one of the only special forces units authorised to use pre-emptive measures against terrorists and their associates; risking death to undergo training in survival, evasion, resistance and escape including stress shooting and close-quarter combat. They are undeniably bad ass; rumoured to drink snake venom they can kill you with a paperclip and swim 50 metres with their feet and hands bound. Their activities aren't commented on by the White House or the Department of Defense. There are no written records of their operations. We don't know who they are.

In the same way that details about bin Laden's everyday life remind us of his mortality, the lack of details about Team 6 as people render them superhuman. They don't drink coffee and eat pizza and watch TV and have unpaid bills and get divorced and attend their kid's nativity plays and go to bed without brushing their teeth. Although their anonymity is essential to protect their lives and the integrity of US security, it also serves the need of the millions of Americans (and not only Americans) who were effected by 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror, who grew weary of the failures of the government at home and abroad, and who started to imagine bin Laden as a dark shadow, beyond reach. These people needed something to believe in and trust wholeheartedly, without caution or inhibition. Truth, justice and the American way just weren't cutting it anymore. Without anynonymity, with the mortal complexity of each SEAL exposed, this belief and trust would be hard to maintain. And that would be more catastrophic for America than al-Quaeda has ever been.