The Amazing Exploding Nuclear Scientist

It's hard to say for certain what's happening in the mullahs' madland of Iran, but it does seem as if the medical condition known as "Exploding Nuclear Scientist" has become contagious:

According to press reports, another Iranian nuclear scientist was killed in a bomb attack:

The bomb assassination of an Iranian atomic scientist on Wednesday will not stop “progress” in Iran’s nuclear programme, Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told state television. “Today (Wednesday) those who claim to be combatting terrorism have targeted Iranian scientists. They should know that Iranian scientists are more determined than ever in striding towards Iran’s progress,” he said. He called Wednesday’s killing of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a deputy director of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility, “evidence of (foreign) government-sponsored terrorism.”

Sometimes, assassination can forestall far bloodier conflict. As for Roshan, good riddance.

I must say, though, that if anyone knows government-sponsored terrorist, it's the Iranian mullahs.

So, who did it? Let's ask Blackfive:

The list of suspects for this is rather short, starts with Moss and ends with ad. I wish I could include the US on the list, but I don't think that our current leadership considers the Iranians worthy of a gutsy call. I would love to be proven wrong on this as the most dangerous destabilizing thing I can imagine is a nuclear-armed Iran.
Unfortunately that sentiment is not shared by President Obama, or if it is he does a magnificent job of hiding it. He began his attempts at rapprochement with the Mullahs shortly after his inauguration, sending love letters and making videos extolling his deep respect for their rapacity and oppression, their desire to show sweetness & light.

but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization." "And the measure of that greatness is not the capacity to destroy, it is your demonstrated ability to build and create," Obama says.

Yeah, how is that going for so far? Even the Russians have had to acknowledge that the Iranians are not playing straight. Economic sanctions are a piece of the puzzle, Ron Paul's foolish statments about them being acts of war aside. But that alone will not stop the madness. There is no good answer to this, but I think the more unexplained explosions the better.

At this point, Ron Paul sounds more like he's running for President of Iran than of the United States.  He blames America first just as much as Dennis Kucinich.

Like Blackfive, I want to believe the US had a hand in this, but I doubt it.  Though the rhetoric on Iran coming out of the Obama administration has been tougher of late.

Meanwhile, a blogger of dubious ethics claims to have found the parties responsible:

[B]logger Richard Silverstein claimed Wednesday that a senior Israeli source "with great political and military experience" told him that the Mossad carried out the hit along with Iranian opposition group the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI).

The state run IRNA news agency said that Tehran's parliament denounced the hit, adding that once Rahimi finished his statement, the Iranian lawmakers shouted "Death of Israel," "Death of America" and "Death to the hypocrites" – the latter referring to the PMOI.

(This reminds me, a libertarian I know claims Iran has never threatened the United States, has never said it wants to destroy the United States.  I forget how he explained the chants of "Death to America.")

All of this goes to highlight that we are running out of options for dealing with the Iranian mullahs, largely due to the fecklessness of both American political parties.  At PJMedia, N. M. Guariglia discusses the war the mullahs have fought against us since 1979:

In its 32 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has killed lots of U.S. Marines.  The Iranians were behind the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, which killed hundreds of Marines. They were behind the bulk of deadly IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan, which killed and maimed hundreds more. Iran has been killing Americans all over the world for decades. And now the Tehran regime is set to kill another: Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, a 28-year-old American, Arizona-born, Michigan-raised — and former Marine. Hekmati was visiting family in Iran last summer when he was apprehended by authorities. This week, the regime has decided to give him the death sentence.
Hekmati reportedly worked for a New York-based video game company, which had a “hearts and minds” contract with the CIA. And so the mullahs accuse him of being a CIA spy. The extent of Hekmati’s espionage — whether nonexistent or knee-deep — shouldn’t matter. The man is a captured American citizen set to be murdered by a sworn enemy.
We are at a breaking point in 2012. Iran, this national security issue of such magnitude, will reach a crescendo during this year’s presidential election. President Obama and the Republican candidate will spend the better part of the year debating how to handle Iranian hostility with prudence. The wisest course is narrowing down to the only course: regime change in Tehran.

(And how did the great Ronald Reagan respond to the bombing of the Marine barracks?  He pulled out of Lebanon.  Then he actually sold the Iranians weapons.  Stupid.  But I digress ...)

How might we get regime change in Iran?

This does not mean military action — nor does it mean invasion, conquest, or occupation. Regime change, in the case of Iran, means open support for a “Persian Spring.” It means replicating the Reagan-Thatcher model vis-à-vis Lech Walesa in Poland and the late Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia: supporting Iranian dissident and opposition groups rhetorically, politically, financially, materially, and morally until a popular uprising — simmering in Iran since the Green Movement in 2009 — brings down the few hundred or so theocratic mullahs threatening the world.

We must do this for many reasons, but four big ones come to mind.

And those are:

1. To avoid a war.
2. To avoid nuclear blackmail, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear terrorism.
3. Peace in the Middle East.
4. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — the long-term threats.

Read the whole thing.