Is It Moral to Murder?

My lands, have we come to that? A national magazine’s cover story feature is entitled, IS IT MORAL TO KILL IRAN’S SCIENTISTS?

When Hamas does it, it is terrorism. When Hezbollah does it, it’s terrorism,” said Tod Robberson in The Dallas Morning News. So presumably, it was also an act of terrorism last week when two men on a motorcycle raced through morning rush hour traffic in the streets of Tehran and stuck a magnet bomb to a car carrying Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, deputy director of Iran’s nuclear enrichment plant. Roshan, 32 was killed, along with his bodyguard, becoming the fifth Iranian nuclear scientist to die a violent, mysterious death in recent years. No one doubts that Israel’s Mossad is behind these sophisticated assassinations, probably with U.S. help.[1]

Do we have to vote on murder? Assassinations are not only immoral, they are stupid. You can’t stop intelligence with a bomb.

Does anyone think that Iran will suddenly say, “Oh my. We would like to build nuclear capabilities such as that of our neighbors, but we must not upset the Americans or the Israelis?” Or, will killing a scientist or even bombing a reactor only increase their determination to speed up their progress? It might set them back a couple of years, but does anyone think that this is going to be the end of it? It is only a matter of time before the rage in Iran will strike back. Of course, our media will cry about the lack of Islamic morality and report the retaliation as a naked act of hostility. Killing top scientists will increase their determination to strike back at Israel and the U.S. Can you imagine the outrage if Iran started killing American scientists?

There are three reasons why the hawks are willing, or even eager to go to war with Iran. One: they will not have to do the fighting and dying. Two: they will not have to pay for it. And three: they are certain that we will win it. Let the politicians talk about imposing a universal draft, including their own sons and daughters, talk about raising taxes immediately to pay for it, and admit right up front that a war with Iran will not be a cake walk and would probably drag on for decades with no certain outcome, and suddenly we might start hearing different rhetoric coming from our leaders.

Before we allow Israel to drag us into another war, someone needs to ask whose army is going to fight it, how are we going to pay for it, and how in the world are we going to get out of it.

Thomas Are
February 9, 2012

[1] The Week, A Death in Tehran, January 27, 2012, p.4.