The President of Iran ordered the killing of an Iranian living in the US.

[Bonobo]

Iran said that he advocated war against Iran.

Agents were sent and the person was killed on US soil.

What would you think?

Now imagine that the President of Iran ordered the killing of an American for advocating war against Iran.

A clear threat to the security of Iran, right? So the President of Iran is justified in ordering his death, right?

[MrSlayer]

1. Yes.

Make the attempt, see what happens.

That's the difference.

[Bonobo]

2. Might makes right. I get it.

Some of us think that countries should not base their actions on that.

Hopefully people that believe as you do will be unmasked, removed from any positions of authority and shamed into behaving as more than just cavemen.

[MrSlayer]

3. I don't believe in or support it as a policy.

But that's the way it is. What I said is essentially the way we operate. I didn't opine on the morality of such actions.

[Bonobo]

4. Well yes, of course that's the way it is.

We agree on that at least.

I am advocating for it NOT to be that way.

More specifically, I am advocating for people to BEGIN TO BELIEVE that is is not acceptable to behave that way.

[aquart]

6. Sigh.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Power Knows No Right Or Wrong...Only Power...

IRC, the leader of Iran did issue a Fatwah against Zahlman Rushdie during the 80s that led him to live underground for the next decade. Then there was the assasination of the Orlando Letelier...Chilean socialist...who was gunned down in Washington in 1976. In their minds these leaders felt justified...as do others who also have killed potential threats in foreign lands...and they can and will continue to do it. Call it "national security" or "herasy" the end justifies the means if you have those means to carry these mission out.

[HiPointDem]

9. The US had a hand in the Letelier assassination.

[malaise]

11. They had a hand in the killing of Allende as well

and many many other leaders in independent countries.

[HiPointDem]

12. yes. but the poster was talking about foreign countries assassinating people in the us. but

the letelier case wasn't a good example.

[Skidmore]

7. This would not be the first time something like this has happened under the

Islamic Republic or under the deposed monarchy, for that matter. You are going to have to stretch further.

[Selatius]

8. I understand the thrust of your op, but the United States will not abandon its kill lists.

The frank truth is that there is no world power or organization strong enough to make the United States quit such an exercise. Nobody in any position of power in Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Moscow, or Beijing could really do anything when it came to light that the United States was operating a clandestine network of black sites in which to torture designated "enemy combatants," and they don't really seem to be moving on the revelation that Bush and Obama maintain "Kill Lists" of people they've designated an enemy. If the US had done this in a major war against a hypothetical superpower and lost such a war, its leaders would likely be placed on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity for the way they've both waged war and treated prisoners captured on the battlefield and for ordering extrajudicial killings of people without fair trial.

As George W. Bush aptly said with the Bill of Rights, "It's just a goddamn piece of paper!"

[DCKit]

10. And when an entire elementary school full of kids becomes "collateral damage"....

Iran will just say "we're sorry" and it'll be enough.