The Ethics of Invading Ukraine VS Invading Iraq

When the U.S. points out the absolutely unethical nature of Russia invading Ukraine, a common response is that the U.S. speaks hypocritically because it invaded Iraq. They were both invasions of foreign sovereign countries, and both invasions were protested by many third-party nations. However, these two invasions are in no way equivalent ethically.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a dictator invading a struggling democracy for the purpose of conquest; or semi-conquest if the plan was to put a puppet leader in charge. Currently, Russia has annexed…