"International Law"

One oxymoron I have become more and more enamored of of late is "International Law".

This particular one is well-loved and used by left-leaning folks, when the US government doesn't do what they want, or are actively doing something they don't like. They of course hope international law will prevent the US from acting unilaterally when the government thinks it ought to.

Currently, the most applied area of use (or misuse) is the discussion surrounding the conflict in Iraq. Apparently, international law states that the action the US and it's allies took was contrary to international law.

Well, there is no such thing as international law, just treaties set up between countries, on various aspects of trade and other areas. There is no world police force, nor world court with powers to try and sentence guilty countries, as much as the left would like there to be.

As an example, Saddam Hussein violated, more than once, the terms of the cease-fire following the 1991 Gulf War. As such, he forfeited the agreement and so laid himself, and his country open to the consequences, a restart of the 1991 Gulf War. If some folks don't like that, that's tough, please feel free to join the rest of us on planet Earth.

Another example is the impunity that Iran is currently showing to the IAEA in regard to it's pursuit of nuclear weapons. If this episode doesn't show the impotency of the international law enforcement edifice, I am not sure what will.