Late last week, the Global Briefing talked with law-of-war expert and Stanford University law professor Tom Dannenbaum. His answer: those are not valid reasons. The US may not have signed on to this part of the Geneva Conventions, but international law functions like common law, with precedents building on each other. It all applies. Plus, the Pentagon’s Law of War Manual acknowledges the same civilian protections, Dannenbaum noted.

For a power plant to be a legitimate target, it must have a “tight connection” to the opponent’s military objectives and capacities, Dannenbaum said. If the plant is housing an Iranian military command center, that’s one thing. But if it’s supplying electricity to some military installations along with the Iranian population writ large, that isn’t a valid justification on its own for striking. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russian commanders accused of ordering militarily unnecessary strikes on Ukrainian electric infrastructure, Dannenbaum pointed out.