We can’t have moral equivalence. Not with a nation-state that has subjected its neighbor to a frozen, stalemated conflict for the better part of the last decade — a conflict in which it has, disgustingly, bombed multiple hospitals. Not with a regime that murders journalists and funds disruptive political movements elsewhere in its region. Some people would like to forget these facts, but we shouldn’t.
One would expect the foreign-policy idealists — the people who argue that American ideals of freedom should guide our foreign policy — to agree with this simple position. And they do — so long as it’s Russia bombing hospitals and murdering journalists. When Russia does these things, we funnel billions of dollars and matériel to their victims. But when Saudi Arabia does them, we give its tyrannical leader a fist-bump and refuel his jets — and suddenly our foreign-policy idealists say we have to get real, cut our leaders some slack, and recognize the strategic importance of our allies. After all, it’s just a fist bump (plus whatever Biden promised MBS in private).
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