Peace Fieldpea,
Let me ask you:
why do you think you are compelled to ponder, "why the POTUS is not central to it"?
I felt compelled because of how you framed your OP. I literally had to set aside what I knew about the back story, if I was going to be able to see that photo in a different way. I'd seen that particular photo before, and at the time I saw it, I knew that I saw/picked up on nothing overt or subliminal in it. For me, it spoke 'some' to the issue of who was with the POTUS at the time that Bin Laden was killed.
When I say the POTUS is not central to it--given at the time I was looking at it as if I didn't know more than what I could see in the pic--my thinking was in terms of position (physical placement) in the group pictured. In that pic, the general is the central focal point--and not the POTUS--but, the importance OF the pic increases simply because the POTUS is a part of the group gathered inside of that room.
One Love, and PEACE