People cry out at the injustice of America and Israel’s wars in a way they don’t for Ukraine versus Russia. In the West, we claim it is hypocrisy for colonial empires to claim civilized, liberal values while destroying innocents.
Of course, there is a more profound truth behind the motivation, which is that liberalism announces aspirational values, but ideals are not principles.
Any civilization that can survive genocide and withstand the brutal attacks of religious fanatics must foundationally exist on an earlier primordial law; which is evoked under stress and sheds the aspirational.