On the forum of the BBC monthly science magazine Focus I posted a comment on their December, 2009 cover story Destination Space.
In the February, 2010 issue an edited version of my post was published:
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Wiesel: If Ahmadinejad were assassinated, I wouldn't shed a tear
While I understand the fear, anger, and rage that would move someone like Eli Wiesel to say this, I wish he hadn't.
Elie Wiesel (orange box) in the Buchenwald, Germany concentration camp, April, 1945, after liberation by the U.S. Army. (Public Domain photo by U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer.)
Not only would assassinating Ahmadinejad not solve the Iranian problem, it risks unleashing a wave of retaliatory assassinations of other heads of state.
The world informally agrees that states do not target other heads of state for assassination.
After WWII, states reexamined that position, wondering if they had assassinated Hitler the horrors of the Holocaust could have been prevented.
During the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, heads of states were targeted for assassination. One of the unintended tragic consequences may have been the assassination of President Kennedy.
Some scholars speculate that among Lee Harvey Oswald's motivation was retaliation for the attempts the CIA was making against Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders. Oswald was an unaffiliated communist who strongly supported and sympathized with the Cuban revolution.
Many options such as more sanctions especially cutting off refined oil products, a blockade, or a declaration of war, are available to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and supporting the Iranians' demands for freedom.
Assassinating their leaders is not one of them.
Related note:
Assassinating Hitler would not have ended the war. That would have not changed the demand by the Allies and the Soviets that Germany unconditionally surrender, be occupied and disarmed.
The Allies and the Soviets would have preferred to capture Hitler alive then try him war crimes.
The German anti-Nazi resistance was divided on assassinating Hitler. Some felt that assassination was necessary for a successful coup and to end the war. Others, perhaps Rommel, preferred arresting Hitler then holding a public trial to break the Nazi hold on the German psyche and to began to restore Germany's standing in the world by taking responsibility for their crimes.
For more information:
Eli Wiesel's account of his Holocaust experiences and his post war recovery.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sarah Palin's Israeli flag pin
Did wearing an Israeli flag pin at the tea bag convention expose Sarah Palin's affiliation with or belief in religious extremism? She wore an Israeli flag alongside an American one. Some Christians on the fringes of mainstream Christian theology see Israel and the Jews as part of their end times apocalyptic prophecies.  They believe these prophecies require Israel to retain sovereignty over all the land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. Therefore they have aligned themselves with the Israeli extremists opposed to the two state solution. The majority of Israelis and their supporters around the world see permanent peace as in Israel's short and long term interests. A two state solution is recognized as essential part of any final agreement. Another part of their "prophecy" requires the Jews to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. After doing their part to create the conditions so Jesus can return, Jews will be offered one last chance to convert to Christianity or suffer the wrath of god. So much for these Christians' "special love" of Israel and Jews. The end of times conversion offer can be seen as a denial of the validity of Judaism as a religion. by Ann Gerhart, 44 The Obama Presidency, The Washington Post, Feb. 7, 2009 |
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