Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Monsoor Coffin Trident Hoax? Probably Not

There's a story going around that the photo, at least, of Michael A. Monsoor's trident-studded coffin is a fake. That's because "You can't get such alignment by slapping badges on a coffin as it passes by."

I did a little checking into the story, and wrote an update to "Golden Tridents on Petty Officer Michael A. Monsoor's Coffin" (July 5, 2008).

The bottom line is this: the video (embedded in the original July 5, 2008, post) shows SEALs approaching an essentially stationary coffin, and carefully placing each trident, before pounding it in place.

A lesson here may be to take a closer look at available evidence, before declaring something to be a hoax.
Update, of a sort:

3 comments:

The Mad Dog said...

Folks are loathe to do research, don't you know? It's rather indicative of our unique American apathy towards all things. Knee-jerk reactions are quite a bit easier. I enjoy the depth and respect you apply to your postings.

Peace and joy...D.C. Massey

Brian H. Gill said...

The Mad Celt,

Thanks for the good words. I think respect is important: although some things warrant more than others.

About Americans and apathy, I don't know. I've run into what might be termed knee-jerk reactions from all over: "Nero Was Working for the Christians: Who Knew?" (March 22, 2008), for example.

Susan Harrell said...

No disrespect, but if you'll look in the video (8min 45 sec)at the coffin they are pounding the tridents on, it is far too short, narrow, and small to be an adult male's coffin. It looks to be a replica that is approximately 3 feet long, and if you really look, there is no seam for the lid which is used for viewing. this coffin appears to be a child sized coffin, mostly used for babies. Maybe the trident pounding is symbolic, and they retrieved their tridents after the ceremony?

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.