The West risks alienating a lot of the world by insisting they care about what we care about.
Yes, the Western problem with Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not the rest of the world's problem.
Not for the first time, the west is mistaking its own unity for a global consensus. One misleading measure is at the UN. In the organisation’s last tally earlier this month, 141 of 193 member states condemned Vladimir Putin’s blatant violation of international law. But the 35 that abstained account for almost half the world’s population. That includes China, India, Vietnam, Iraq and South Africa. If you add those that voted with Russia, it comes to more than half.
Moreover, many of those nominally against Russia are hedging their bets.
A bloody war went on for years with millions of dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) without arousing much interest in the West.
India's fight against Chinese and Pakistani aggression is only occasionally newsworthy in the West.
And speaking of India, spare a little nuance for India's dilemma and potential for dealing with the problem bigger than Russia--China.
Did Syria's multi-war provoke action by the West?
Did Darfur? The Uighurs? Hong Kong? Myanmar? North Korea? Rwanda?
It took a long time for the West to be roused to action in the former Yugoslavia. In a corner of Europe.
And how was that Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 handled?
Hell, Russia's invasion of European Ukraine in 2014 barely got the West's attention!
The West is surely a beacon of democracy and rule of law. But it has no moral authority to insist the rest of the world be as outraged as the West is right now. Nobody can be outraged by everything, everywhere. Which is fine. Unpleasant. But fine.
The West should hope we aren't judged by the rest of the world for the standard of how we assume the rest of the world should react to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The West--and Hungary's Orban is a deep disappointment--should be outraged by Russia's invasion of Ukraine for moral and defense reasons. I worry that the West's outrage will wear off more than I worry about the rest of the world getting outraged.
Let's get to work with our Russia problem and not insist countries must be with the West or against the West. We might not like their choice.
That is why 93 UN member states backed the US-led move to suspend Russia. But there are 193 UN members, so less than half voted in favour: 58 abstained, 24 voted against, a further 18 were out of the room having what UN diplomats wryly call a "strategic coffee break".
UPDATE: This is what I'm saying:
Mind you, I'm willing to say the West is the best part of the world. But I'm a knuckle-dragger. What's the Left's excuse?
NOTE: War updates continue on this post.
