When international law becomes a shield for tyranny

In the aftermath of coordinated strikes by the United States and Israel against the Iranian regime, the commentary was predictable. Talking heads and pundits immediately retreated to the United Nations Charter. They spoke reverently of a “rules-based international order,” condemning the strikes as illegal for lacking a valid justification.

The reality is that the sanctity of human rights trumps sovereignty. When a regime engages in the mass slaughter of its own people, it forfeits the shield of sovereignty. The principle of nonintervention was designed to keep the peace between states, not to grant dictators a hunting license over their citizens.

Make no mistake. The Iranian regime is terrible, and it needs to go. The only way to ensure that the people of Iran have a future is to remove the boot from their neck. If the “rules-based order” cannot accommodate the liberation of ninety million people from a genocidal theocracy, then perhaps that order does not deserve our reverence. It deserves our contempt.

Julan Omir P. Aldover,