by Jake Wallis Simons, Telegraph
t should be obvious that supporting Israel, Ukraine and the people of Iran is the right thing to do. Why, then, are so many so compromised?
Some moral questions are vexed. Assisted dying, say, or the limits of free speech. Other dilemmas are more straightforward, and foremost among these is the fight against tyranny.
Or it should be. Recent years have posed repeated ethical challenges which require us to draw upon our most basic values for a courageous response. Yet we can’t seem to get it together.
The era of decadence that began with the dissolution of the Soviet Union ended when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. Which side was deserving of our support was an easy judgment. On the one hand, a corrupt and authoritarian bully in the Kremlin was using his muscle to advance an imperial erotic fantasy; on the other, a free society was fighting for its life after doing nothing to provoke its neighbour.
The outrage was obvious. Ukraine had relinquished the world’s third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the Nineties, in exchange for security assurances from the United States, Britain and Russia. Now hundreds of civilians were being raped, tortured and summarily executed in Bucha, a pretty riverside city north-west of Kyiv.
In Britain, support was unequivocal. Across the country, the blue-and-yellow banner fluttered in cities, towns and villages. Yes, there was some displacement going on – finally there was a flag we were allowed to fly! – but this was also a genuine outpouring of love. More than 300,000 Ukrainians have since been offered sanctuary, many in private homes.
[…] Which brings us to Iran. Although this is a regime that is believed to have butchered more than 30,000 people in two days, sows terror around the globe, lusts after nuclear weapons and is driven by apocalyptic theological fantasies, its fans have marched in our cities. Commentators, meanwhile, pay lip service to condemning Tehran while their true passions only gush forth when it comes to willing the downfall of Trump.