Ukraine, Israel and the risk of justifying an attack on a country because it is not perfect

Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, al conocerse las atrocidades cometidas por el nazismo, muchos se preguntaron cómo fue posible eso.

Israel and Ukraine, two nations attacked by terrorists while the West remains asleep
Patriotism and the Russian invasion: Do you ask of Ukraine what you would not accept for your country?

We could ask that same question about the atrocities committed by communist dictatorships. Leaving aside the death tolls caused by Nazis and communists, there is a common denominator in both totalitarian ideologies that defies the understanding of many: how could so much evil arise?

I really like history, and to review the crimes committed by Nazis and communists is to encounter evil at its finest. If it is already sad that something like this has happened, what is alarming is seeing that history repeats itself. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops have committed horrendous atrocities against the Ukrainian people that are terribly reminiscent of the darkest episodes of the last century. The same can be said of the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists in their attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, with men, women and children burned alive, women raped by dozens of terrorists and a long list of crimes.

For those of us who believe that history should serve to prevent the mistakes of the past from being repeated, these facts are discouraging. But it is even more astonishing to see, hear and read some people who justify or excuse these crimes by criticizing the attacked countries. According to them, Ukraine and Israel are not holy or perfect because of this or that. It is an infamous attempt to equate aggressors and those attacked, murderers and victims, invaders and those who defend their country from an invasion.

I'm not surprised to hear justifications like that on the extreme left. After all, it is a part of the political map where there is not even the slightest hint of morality, where the end justifies any means. It is much more difficult to understand those who claim to defend noble principles (Christianity, patriotism, human dignity, freedom or tradition) and at the same time focus their reproaches on those attacked, as if they deserved to suffer all those atrocities because their country, apparently, is not perfect for whatever reasons.

Leaving aside the fact that it is morally reprehensible to equate aggressors and those attacked, those who make these justifications put themselves and their countries at risk. I am Spanish and I love my country deeply, but it would never occur to me to justify an attack on another country with an argument like that because my country is not perfect by any means. If you justify Ukraine and Israel being attacked because they are not perfect, what right would you be outraged if your country was the one attacked? Nobody lives in a perfect country, so according to that way of thinking, everything The world would deserve a foreign invasion, taking into account that in the two cases cited, the aggressors are worse than those attacked.

To those who justify the invasion of Ukraine in this way, for example, I encourage you to ask yourself a question: how long would it take many pro-Russians to justify an attack against Spain because it is a NATO country? Or because it is a capitalist country, because there is a socialist government or because abortion is legalized here (just like in Russia), or for any other reason. Each person would choose the reason (real or false) they prefer to justify something like this, just as they do with Ukraine and Israel.

The absurdity of this way of thinking is that, with their arguments, what they are doing is giving ideological ammunition for others to justify an attack on their country. And not only an attack, but also that criminals could come to Spain and do things as horrendous as those that Russia and Hamas have done in the attacks against their neighbors. Obviously, they will say that they would never justify something like that against their own country: and why do they justify it against others?

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Image: MrDm / Freepix.