CNBC: Top Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/27/top-...assinated.html

Is US involved in this?

From the point of national security and war, assassination seems effective. Ethics wise, it's debatable.

What do you guys think about this?

Ineffective and immoral. Only braindead imperialist sheep even wonder about other possibilities.

I'm a braindead imperialist sheep.

You have such a strong absolute opinion. You must have very good reasons. Care to share them ?

“Awww, that’s a shame.”
Jerry

IF the USA did it Trump will be bragging about it. It may be Israel also

As Immoral as accepted casualties when droning

Probably quite effective, in fact. First it effectively decapitates the Iranian nuclear-weapons programme. Second it reminds the Iranian ruling clique that, when they keep threatening to wipe Israel off the map, Israel is going to take an adverse view of that kind of talk. Third it reminds the same clique that Israeli agents can operate inside Iran with impunity, as they have done on several previous occasions.

This helps as a starting point for me to compare.

Since this nuclear scientist works for the government, it imply that he accepts some risks. This leads me to think this is less immoral than civilian casualties in drone strikes.

I'd agree with your third point.
On your second point..okay they don't like each other pretty sure everyone involved is aware...

For the first point, that's for debate unless this dude was that much above other scientists won't he just be replaced with another scientist?

I mean if Pakistan assassinated one of our (USA#1) aerospace engineers responsible for advances to the drone program would that be fair play?

Feel like its a slippery slope, much more so then when the US assassinated the Al Quds guy (he was at least an actual military member).

That is a valid point if he had a choice on accepting the job? Though what lies has he been fed by his government to do the job?
Look at the lies that were to get the USa in Iraq. Are all those deaths immoral?

One dodgy aspect is that the Israelis are presumably trying to spoil Biden's plan to revive the 'Iran nuclear deal'. They may think that the deal isn't worth the paper it's written on anyway, but Biden is possibly not too pleased.

Which is why they’ll do the strike now: not as a way to torpedo any potential deal that might happen, but they know the current administration will grant tacit (if not overt) approval. Israel would want to avoid making decisions between protecting themselves and crossing their main ally’s diplomatic overtures in the area.

It isn't unlikely that it is a state-sponsored killing, so I'll continue to argue as if that was the case.

Once nuclear proliferation is on the table, ethical considerations tend to come last. And understandably so, since the consequences are so dire. A country divided between a extremist theocracy and a Republic which has tipped increasingly towards hardliners in today's political climate, complete with (somewhat) opposing military factions is not exactly an ideal candidate for nuclear weapon capacity.

But the assassination is also a jarring reminder that the gunship-diplomacy used towards Iran in recent years is hardly successful.

A minor danger of trump is we start to think that 'normal' merican politcs is ok.

It's quite posible that the Biden camp is perfectly happy for this to have happened before he can be held responsible and, being really cynical, before he would have to oppose it because he wants a deal.

We dont know who is responsible but if it is Israel, it would be naive to think it's definitely the case that they weren't given tacit approval. Obviously they may just have acted alone before Biden comes in or it may well not be Israel at all.

I doubt this will matter much for a potential deal. Sure, there'll be some blustering, but at the same time they just lost an ace from their hand. If the odd bomb or killing disrupted deals, there wouldn't be many deals in the more heated regions of the middle-east.

Far more likely to disrupt a deal is the uncertainty of future US administrations. The world has learned over the last 4 years that the US does not overly respect deals these days.

The cyncical point was that it could matter for a deal if merica is implicated and it happend after Biden becomes president.

Prolly Mossad

Have a hard time believing we did this if trump isn’t bragging on twitter about it

I'm not a shill for the Israeli state. Or for the US state.

There's nothing theoretically difficult about making nuclear weapons (anymore). The difficulties are technical ones related to the actual manufacturing process. Like any big engineering project, it requires good leadership, but the leader is substitutable. Iran has plenty of good physicists and engineers.

What's odd to me is the asymmetry of reactions. It's ok for the Israeli state to sponsor terrorism, but it's not ok for the Iranian state. I get the latter, but the not the former.

this is how it should be looked at imo. just like the general.. if we had a scientist or even a general assassinated is that fair game? would we just say "welp you got us.. maybe next time, you sneaky guys..."

if your reaction is different then it's not about "fairness" or "morality" its about imperialism.

I agree and it's how we should consider everything

The counter arguments are 'both sides, both sides hahahaha' and 'nazi scientist!?'

Very poor bodyguarding for someone who has been targeted before and is so well known. Apparently not even one of the attackers was found or wounded. No mention of a bodyguard being hurt either. Just an observation.

If this is a reference to US drone strikes in Pakistan, there is pretty much no way they happen without local support in government. It's perhaps not the one that makes the newspapers (voters being fickle about such things and various internal fractions would surely update their hit lists), but generally you tread with some care when entering the air space of a nuclear power.

I can pretty much promise you that thousands of people have been assassinated and killed by various governments to stop nuclear proliferation, and it has little to do with maintaining colonies in the name of the empire.

Yep, history is filled with successful societies which engaged in Kantian ethics as a foreign policy.

I would have said that, among bien-pensants, it was entirely the other way round. Everything the Tehran regime does is OK, and a monster like Soleimani was a saint, but everything Israel or the West does is wrong.

ok. Later reports have security guards killed. Maybe others.