Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Wet Work vs. Terrorism

I wonder how the US would react if US experts in the development of flying drone killbots were in limited supply, and this stuff kept happening to them:
TEHRAN, Iran — Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and his driver Wednesday, reports said. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran’s atomic program.

The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to amplify authorities’ claims of clandestine operations by Western powers and their allies to halt Iran’s nuclear advances.

The blast killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, state TV reported. State news agency IRNA said Roshan had “organizational links” to Iran’s nuclear agency, which suggests a direct role in key aspects of the program.

Natanz is Iran’s main enrichment site, but officials claimed earlier this week that they are expanding some operations to an underground site south of Tehran with more advanced equipment.

The U.S. and its allies are pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a key element of the nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as nuclear fuel but at higher levels, it can be used as material for a nuclear warhead.
To avoid exasperating my fellow Murricans, I'll skip right over such niggling considerations as was Professor Roshan anyone's son, or anyone's brother, or anyone's uncle, or anyone's husband, or anyone's father, or anyone's friend? or was Professor Roshan a human being, created in the image of God. Much less will I try my countrymen's notoriously short patience by raising these same trivial speculations about "his driver," in whose case we're not even burdened with a name. No, like everything else in the world, it's all about us -- or, rather, it's all about the Israelis, but that's the same thing, right? Instead, I'll ask a bigger-scale question. Most Murricans -- not all, for sure, but most -- are probably willing to admit that installing the Shah, back in the 1950s, might not have been the very smoothest move ever made by Murrica. So how is it that we never, ever, ever seem able to learn even the tiniest little thing from our mistakes?

Meanwhile, forget all about this magnetic car-bombs business. Just wipe it right out of your mind. After all, the NFL playoffs are here, and the Super Bowl is imminent. And when terrorism revisits these shores (and I'm talking real terrorism here, the kind that's done against Murricans, not to be confused with putting bombs on professors' cars -- that ain't terrorism), we can once again be all hurt and confused and completely unable to imagine why anyone, anywhere could ever hate us.

4 comments:

Phil Marx said...

Seriously, considering Kelo v. New London, Citizen's United, SOPA, NDAA, reversal of FOIA, and several states claiming it is a felony offense to record their government in action, is there really much left here for others to be jealous of?

I'm beginning to wonder if it's really something we're doing "over there" that has angered them. I'd like to go on-line to check out some foregn news coverage that might enlighten me, but I'm afraid that would cause my government to classify me as a terrorist - for my own protection, of course.

Mimi said...

Were the "two assailants on a motocycle" found? Or maybe this is a better question: Were they ever looked for? I'm still wondering if those monsters in the helicopter who laugh while they shoot reporters and children on the ground were ever disciplined. Charged with murder? Fined? Warned not to repeat? Do you know,Jim?

Felon said...

Hi Phil, I'm ten years ahead of you. I've got a ten year lead fact-checking Alex Jones, LewRockwell, and about 30 international news websites. Perhaps a cliff notes version to bring you up to speed

Jim Wetzel said...

Be careful, Phil ... read only material from officially approved sources. Can't be too careful, you know!

Mimi, I've seen no evidence to suggest that any of these isolated incidents were or are being investigated. But, then, why should Uncle Sam investigate his own acts of beneficence toward the unenlightened?