High level attack, could only be done by a state I heard on CNN. But it was a bomb stuck to some magnets delivered by a motorcycle, by somebody who knew the guy enough to follow. If this attack was done by high level forces, it was designed to be crude and spectacular, to send a warning message rather than to just take out the target. Spectacular everybody-sees-it attacks executed by simple means are the normal MO of terrorist groups, not state forces. But there is no interest in associating the attack with a smaller force in the reporting, rather they are trying to elevate its origins. That's significant, but I'm not sure what it means.
What really grinds my gears is all the dead scientists. I'm not just talking Iran, some time ago a bunch of scientists who knew how to make bio-weapons in the US were killed, and in the UK so many of scientists who worked on nuclear defense systems were found dead in horrific ways... Good scientists are rare, precious and beautiful creatures, people who can really change the world, but they are often put forth as pawns in these games, when they should be kings and queens. What I would like to see would be a global order of scientists, they work for you if you work for them, meaning if mullah wants the fruits of science, mullah implements rational secular reforms. You want to solve the proliferation problem? This is how you do it. Consider: Einstein wept in Japan apologizing for how things went down in Hiroshima due to his own work (refer to Dawkins saying that less lethal demonstrations of the bomb's power could have affected Japanese surrender) The people have the rationality to discover the forces are those who have the rationality to know when and how to use them. But subverting the powers of scientists here is reflected in the Middle East, leading the the inevitable conclusion of the irrational nutjob holding the fruits of pure rationality, the bomb, in his hands.
People need to decide if they want rationality in charge or not. And if not, they need to accept the fruits of the fruits of rationality in the hands of the irrational.
= new reply since forum marked as read