Nineteenth-century French politician Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin is remembered for only one thing, but that's more than will be said for most of us. "There go my people," history records that he mused at one point. "I must find out where they are going so I can lead them."

This was called to mind by Rep. Ilhan Omar's sudden flurry of newfound criticism of the Iranian regime, a regime that has been fundamentally, pervasively oppressive for decades but has not seemed to interest Omar or her colleagues on America's far Left until recently. "There is no morality in oppressing women," Omar tweeted as Iranians took to their streets to protest the murder of young Iranians by their government and were murdered in turn. "There is no morality in forcing people to participate in a religion they don't want to."

The killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in the custody of Tehran's morality police after being arrested for not covering her hair with the traditional Islamic hijab, has spawned protests across Iran by young people demanding an end to a regime that has largely been coddled by the American Left, even though its systemic human rights atrocities have long been obvious to the entire world.

Last year's annual State Department report on the condition of human rights in Iran is a repeat of what has been reported year after year. Iran is guilty of "unlawful or arbitrary killings" and "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" by its government or its agents, "severe restrictions on free expression" and "serious restrictions on internet freedom." The government commits "violence against ethnic minorities," criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual conduct, imposes "significant restrictions on workers' freedom of association" and fosters "the worst forms of child labor."

Other than that, it is a model of progressivism.

And, oh, yes, it has been deemed by our State Department the world's foremost state sponsor of terror, responsible for brutalizing innocents throughout the Middle East and beyond. This includes tens of thousands of Syrian civilians butchered by the Assad regime, bankrolled by Tehran, and the terrorized citizens of Lebanon, forcibly occupied by Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy.

One might have hoped that progressives would have emitted a mild criticism of Iran every now and again. But until the recent profusion of social media coverage of brave Iranians protesting their government and being brutally repressed as a consequence, stirring some on the Left to feel as though they really should go on record, there was virtual silence on the Left when it came to Iran.

On the contrary, the Left — and not only the far Left — was often pleased to deride those who warned about the tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief handed over to Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal as "neocons" or "warmongers." This, sad to say, was the dishonest and ugly line one heard from some in the Obama administration at the time.

And there were those who, like the National Iranian American Council, criticized by some as an apologist for the Iranian government and a darling of Team Obama, repeatedly demanded an end to sanctions on Iran — sanctions intended to help spur and support the in-country opposition now on display. Omar has been one such person, repeatedly calling for the repeal of sanctions. Such sanctions, Omar proclaimed in 2019, "have simultaneously strengthened the Iranian regime's credibility at home and united human rights activists and the Iranian leadership." In 2020, Omar joined fellow Squad members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib in urging an end to sanctions on Iran — even as they endorsed imposing them on Israel.

Now that support for Iranian dissenters has erupted across the globe, Omar and friends are scrambling to create the impression that they have been interested in Iranian oppression all along. They haven't. But it's better late than never.

Jeff Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment, he is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald, writing on politics, national security, human rights and the Mideast.

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