A Secret Mission?

I love a good conspiracy theory. Not the crazy ones that no one could believe, but the ones that seem so real that you just have to give it a second look.


Recently, I stumbled upon an article about an Iranian nuclear scientist who was recently killed. A few days later, the rest of the world stumbled upon it and now it's all over the news.


The basics: three Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in explosions and a fourth came awfully close. To clarify, these explosions did not take place in a lab. Which means they either all have the worst luck ever, or someone is actively seeking this group of people out for assassination.


Let's be honest about a couple of things: first, there is a pretty extensive list of people who would want to prevent Iran from becoming nuclear; second, the United States is on that list (as are all of it's allies); third, all of this may mean nothing given the volatile state of the region and the world (everyone's a suspect).


The truth of the matter is that we may never know who is actually behind the killings. Hell, we didn't even know about them until the 3rd death and the 4th attempt (I guess you can't call it a pattern until there are 3 victims, eh, serial killers?). That being said, although many have discredited the theory, the U.S. government remains the prime suspect.


Why wouldn't they be? We know that we are the target of Iran (there are others, of course, but still). We know that we cannot afford to go to war with Iran (Iraq broke us, Afghanistan continues to break us and let's face it, we're broke). We know that the world cannot withstand a nuclear war. Let's face it, we've been fearing it since 1945. War is no longer fun when a small bomb has the magnitude to wipe us out completely. We're pretty good at going to war. We don't always win, but we sure will try. But, wait, does our opponent have nukes? Well, maybe we'll try diplomacy first. But, what if it doesn't work? NOW, we have a problem!


We want to avoid this particular outcome at all costs. We don't want to fight a war on our soil. Aside from the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, aside from the War of 1812, the American Revolution, etc. (in other words, in a really long time), we don't fight wars (with foreigners) on our own soil. WWI and WWII never made it to America. Neither did the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Iran would be an opponent who could bring the war to our backyard. This changes everything.


Did the U.S. assassinate Iran's nuclear scientists? My guess is that they probably didn't. First, bombs are not precise enough to ensure the death of a specific person (Hitler evaded them more than once). Second, they allow for additional casualties. Third, there are cheaper and easier ways to kill one person at a time.


This is, of course, my opinion and not an exact science. It is entirely possible, just not probable. The truth: we will never know.