Well before the story of Moses bringing the tablets down from Mount Sinai, murder has been regarded as one of the most heinous acts that a person can commit. It spurs laws that demand the murderer be killed, tortured, and maimed.
Certain murders recently, however, have some people cackling with delight. During the morning hours of Jan. 11, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan got in his car to make the commute to his job as deputy head at Iran's nuclear enrichment facility.
A motorcyclist had placed a magnetic bomb underneath his car, which killed Roshan immediately. His driver died later in a hospital.
This story is not entirely uncommon in the bizarre world of the Iranian nuclear agency. Since 2010, three other nuclear scientists have been killed in similar circumstances, but there has been absolutely no backlash.
Quite the contrary, in fact many are nearly cheerful at the prospect of innocent people being gunned down and blown up as long as they're working for an unsavory government.
"On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead," said Rick Santorum on a campaign stop in South Carolina back in October. "I think that's a wonderful thing, candidly."
Santorum is not alone in his sentiment. Like pseudo-Machiavellian paragons, people ranging from an Israeli military spokesmen to historians to the average Joe have shown that they're happy with this, as Iran getting the bomb would be much worse than losing the lives of some random Persian scientists.
If in fact the Republican Guard of Iran were to acquire a thermonuclear weapon, it would undoubtedly be extremely dangerous. All nations should work together to prevent it, but the killing of these nuclear scientists is not the way to do it.
Although it sounds callous, those that have been killed were not irreplaceable, and the assassins know this. The point wasn't to just temporarily cripple the Iranian nuclear program but to intimidate anyone working for it. Nothing sends a message quite like a murder.
These scientists committed no crime. They weren't on the battlefield fighting against American forces. They didn't sponsor terrorism, they were the victims of it and it's sickening to see undisguised happiness over what is little more than murder.
Soon after Roshan's death, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied any involvement in the violence that occurred, which was reiterated by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
Sure, the U.S. or the CIA might not be involved. It's not unreasonable to think one of the numerous nations that are not exactly friendly with Iran, say Israel or the U.K., may be responsible, but the blood is on our hands just the same.
Governments will continue to think that this kind of deplorable action is reasonable and justified as long as there is praise and no backlash for it. The world doesn't work like a James Bond flick. The people who die aren't nameless goons that overact after being shot – they're real people with families.
It's a simple decision, really. Are we against terrorism, no matter who it hurts or kills, or are we willing to accept it as long as it serves a purpose that we deem noble?
