The New York Times reports:
Iran’s top nuclear scientist [Mohsen Fakhrizadeh], who American and Israeli intelligence have long charged was behind secret programs to design an atomic warhead, was shot and killed in an ambush on Friday as he was traveling in a vehicle in northern Iran.
Live Updates: Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist Killed in Ambush, State Media Say, November 27, 2020
It is understood that Israel is responsible:
Mr. Fakhrizadeh had long been the No. 1 target of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, which is widely believed to be behind a series of assassinations of scientists a decade ago that included some of Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s deputies.
This is the behavior of a nation that takes itself and its own survival seriously. Iran is hostile to Israel, and Israel is not naive enough to believe "negotiations" with an enemy theocracy will go anywhere, so instead, it used its best and brightest to kill a talented enemy scientist.
The USA is not so wise. American servicemen are often sent to conflicts that do not concern our country. More than a generation after the disastrous "Black Hawk Down incident," our country still wastes blood and treasure in Somalia:
From 2007 to 2017, the U.S. military is known to have carried out 42 [airstrike] attacks. Under Trump, the U.S. military conducted 38 strikes in 2017, 48 in 2018, and 63 in 2019. This year alone, AFRICOM has acknowledged 49 airstrikes in Somalia . . . The number of CIA strikes is unknown. (emphasis added)
Members of our special forces die because of this foreign entanglement: Senior Chief Petty Officer Kyle Milliken in 2017, Staff Sgt. Alex Conrad in 2018, and CIA-contractor Michael Goodboe earlier this week. These sacrifices are not worth it.
Our most talented soldiers should not be in African failed states. They should be in Mexico assassinating cartel leaders, Fentanyl pushers, and the corrupt politicians who let the latter two operate.