What should the US do about Iranian suicide bombers?

Winston Smith · Jul 17, 2010

At least 21 people, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, were killed and 100 wounded in suicide attack at a Shi'ite mosque in the southeast Iranian city of Zahedan on Thursday, Iranian media reported.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the two suicide bombings in front of Zahedan's Grand Mosque, although a lawmaker said he believed the Sunni rebel group Jundollah was behind the attack.

We do know that the United States has been covertly aiding Jundullah -- no doubt as part of the secret armies, militias, terrorist groups and covert operators that the Peace Laureate Administration has recently admitted -- or rather, bragged about in a strategic leak -- running in up to 75 countries around the world.

The Iranian terrorist group Jundallah is at it again. How should the United States respond?

donsutherland1 · Jul 17, 2010

While I don't believe the U.S. should get involved in Iran's domestic law enforcement activities, so I can't answer "help the Iranian government stop them," the U.S. should refrain from providing any support to that terrorist entity, disrupt any schemes in which any Americans might fund it, and deny the terrorist group safe haven on its territory or territory within its jurisdiction (including territory in Iraq on which the U.S. continues to help facilitate security). No compelling U.S. interests are aided by the Jundollah terrorist group's activities.

Unfortunately, one cannot count on similar responsible conduct from Iran vis-a-vis various terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

mbig · Jul 17, 2010

Perhaps we should see it in a different Context than the you present it in. (a Stealth USA bash under the Guise a poll)
The Context of Tens of Thousands dead in Sunni-Shia violence of the last few years.
And the Context of savage and daily Islamist violence against other religions and rival sects of Islam.

Quick look at today's thereligionofpeace.com 'recent offerings'.

2010.07.16 (Makhachkala, Dagestan) - A Christian bishop is assassinated by Muslim extremists.

2010.07.16 (Tirah Valley, Pakistan) - 3 children are among 10 innocents blown to bits at a marketplace by Religion of Peace advocates.

2010.07.16 (North Waziristan, Pakistan) - The Taliban execute two men by strapping dynamite to their bodies.

2010.07.15 (Tikrit, Iraq) - A Mujahid car bomb along a city street takes down 9 Iraqis.

2010.07.15 (Mahmoudiya, Iraq) - Two people are killed by a bomb planted on a motorcycle.

2010.07.15 (Zahedan, Iran) - At least 27 people are killed when a Sunni suicide bomber takes out a mosque full of Shia worshippers.

Weekly Jihad Report
July 03 - July 09

Jihad Attacks: 40
Dead Bodies: 276
Critically Injured: 59

And so it goes day in, day out... year in, year out.

Goshin · Jul 17, 2010

Do for Iran what we just did for Iraq. Free them from their dictators and give them a chance to pursue their own destiny democratically.

Sectarian violence in Muslim countries based on Sunni, Shia and etc are just a fact of life, unfortunately. It will end when radical Muslims decide that persuasion is a better tool than mass murder.

molten_dragon · Jul 17, 2010

We should remain uninvolved. It's not our job to police Iran, and if we're not at war with them, we shouldn't be supporting terrorist groups operating within the country. Although, I'm not sure I believe that we're actually supporting said group in the first place. The site linked doesn't exactly look unbiased.

rathi · Jul 17, 2010

I highly doubt the U.S. has anything to with Sunni terrorists, so we simply condemn the attack and continue on our current path. Iran can face backlash for its meddling in Iraq alone.

mbig · Jul 17, 2010

Written by someone who takes responsibility for his religions "catastrophic blunders" in re this Sunni-Shia battle carried on mainly, but but not limited to, Iraq.

When Will Muslims Dam the Chlorine Bombers?
Henry Porter, The Observer via Home - Arab News

At least nine of the large-scale attacks in Iraq since the beginning of the year have involved the use of Chlorine. These bombs strike a particular fear because if people are not killed by the blast, they may easily die an agonizing death when the chlorine is dispersed and inhaled.
[.....]
We turn away, taking a perhaps rather Odd Refuge in the certainty that this is all the fault of the Neoconservatives, of the arrogance of Bush and Blair and what is strangely called a policy of “liberal intervention.” A majority were against the war in 2003 and almost everyone is now. But this carries you just so far.
[.....]
The situation, therefore, can No Longer be taken for a classic Resistance of an occupying force. Nor can it be entirely seen as the opposite, that is to say a guerrilla war that is maintained by Islamist, Shiite and Baathist groups for the sole purpose of engaging the American and British military.
The proof of this lies in the fact that the Great Majority of casualties are Caused by Arabs Killing Arabs, Muslims Slaughtering Muslims.

This brings us back to the chlorine bombs being built by Al-Qaeda to terrorize and kill their Muslim brothers, who, we must remember, were so recently oppressed by the atheistic regime of Saddam Hussein.
It is As if Protestant and Catholic groups in the French Resistance USED the Nazi occupation to blow up each other’s churches and market places and slaughter each other’s children. Actually, it is weirder in Iraq because the Sunni extremists of Al-Qaeda are killing and torturing more Sunnis than Shiite, let alone US soldiers.
[.....]
That is Badness of a high order and you would Expect it to have offended every loving parent across Islam. You would certainly expect to hear some stern religious voices in Middle East calling for the cessation of such barbarity in the name of one or other sect or tribe or, indeed, Allah. There are murmurs of disquiet, even horror, but in a way, the Americans and British have become everyone’s alibi or at least plea of mitigation.

Our catastrophic blunder has removed the need for any moral calibration in Islam of what Muslims are doing to Muslims in Iraq...."

jujuman13 · Jul 17, 2010

Applaud them.

jamesrage · Jul 18, 2010

If these terrorist are taking out civilians then they are no better than Hamas or some other terrorist group that sends some deluded loser to blow himself up on a bus full of innocent civilians and we should not applaud them. If they are targeting propaganda media outlets, high ranking officials and other military targets then we should applaud them.

spud_meister · Jul 18, 2010

let Iran deal with problems in Iran, even though Iran is an enemy, as jamesrage said, they're targeting civilians, so they're still terrorist scum.

Scarecrow Akhbar · Jul 19, 2010

Gee, since Iran openly supports terrorist groups all over the damn place, I don't see any reason why the US should help Iran with their own internal troubles.

We should only help civilized nations.

Besides which, even the UAE would prefer it if the US bombed Iran to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.

We've got other things to do than waste time worrying about terrorism in the home of terrorism.

What should the US do about Iranian suicide bombers?