A U.S. Navy sub crept beneath the waves in international waters 2,000 miles from Iran, and fired a torpedo into the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena, sending most of the 130 sailors to the bottom of the sea off the coast of Sri Lanka.
The attack didn't occur in the Persian Gulf. Or American territorial waters. It wasn't anywhere near Iran. It was in the Indian Ocean, waters where the only clear and present danger was to reputations of officials ordering the strike. Trump's defense is familiar MAGA bloodlust: an insistence whatever the U.S. does by definition is lawful. Plus the oil belongs to him. The theory has the intellectual rigor of a drunk (or Hegseth on Fox) insisting he's sober b/c he said so loudly.
Actual law's not so accommodating. Under the principles of the United Nations Charter and longstanding naval warfare custom, using force is justified only in self-defense vs armed attack or imminent threat. “Imminent,” in English, means the danger is about to occur—not it may occur someday, somewhere, if you squint at a map.
Go to BAM to read the rest of this great David Shuster piece. And WATCH the video discussion!
