Editorial 2: Our moral paralysis
Context
Worldwide reactions to the US attack on Iran demonstrate once again that we live in an age of moral paralysis.
Global moral paralysis
- The refusal to speak up is not born out of a genuine ambiguity, complexity or confusion. This is fear in the face of capricious power.
- This pathetic spectacle of morality turned upside down does not affect us all equally. As with every episode of moral equivocation, there are perpetrators of evil and their collaborators who stand to gain.
- Then there are losers, direct or indirect, and bystanders. As we know from the last episode of global moral paralysis — the failure of European powers in the 1930s to act in time against Adolf Hitler — such abdication comes back to haunt everyone.
- There is no clear evidence that Iran was about to make atom bombs soon. The global inspector of those weapons, the IAEA, does not think Iran is anywhere close to making nuclear weapons.
- The U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear sites highlights a double standard: critics scrutinize Iran’s minor IAEA deviations while ignoring how the U.S. action breaches UN resolutions and the NPT.
- While there is some attention on whether POTUS may have violated US laws, there is little discussion on how the US action has violated every international law and convention.
A case of moral bankruptcy
- While the U.S. masks its aggression, global leaders like Macron and Starmer urge restraint—from Iran, the victim.
- Their calls reek of hypocrisy, shifting blame onto the attacked and ignoring blatant violations of the NPT.
- Even Iran's FM noted he was negotiating till the day before. Regional powers stay silent out of self-interest, not principle.
- That Russia and China—hardly moral beacons—offer the clearest condemnation underscores the West’s double standards and moral decay.
Position of India
- In a morally paralyzed world, India's silence disappoints. We were told it had found an independent voice—above camps and ideologies—but it, too, has diminished itself.
- So far in this global redefining moment, India has been a bystander. No one seems to think that the country that was once seen to be the voice of the Global South matters in this instance.
- Worse, we have let down Iran, an old ally that stood with us in difficult times and went out of its way to evacuate our stranded citizens.
- India’s PM expressed “concern” to Iran’s President but avoided mentioning the US strikes—no condemnation, regret, or call for ceasefire. Unsurprising from a government that couldn’t back a Gaza ceasefire at the UN.
Conclusion
We are told that this is the new “realism”, a smart approach to advance our national interest, unconstrained by moralism. History tells us otherwise. Too-clever-by-half and momentary pursuits of selfish interest get you the worst of both worlds: You don’t get respect, nor do you protect your interests. You need friends and some principles to survive in the real world.