On Feb. 24, 2022, 190,000 Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Two years later, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “We did not start this war in 2022.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed from Gaza into Israel and murdered over 1,200 civilians, many of whom had been attending a music festival. The Hamas Media Office called the attack “a defensive act.”

Russia and Hamas were both guilty of using mirror propaganda to accuse the victims of their aggression of being its perpetrators.

Three years after the Russian invasion, Donald Trump echoed Putin and declared Ukraine “should have never started” the war against Russia. No surprise. Trump has a long record of expressing sympathy for Russia and admiration for its president. At the same time, he blames Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his 2019 impeachment and bridles at the “disrespect” he’s been shown by Zelenskyy.

The current Russian regime holds that the U.N.-recognized state of Ukraine is an “artificial” state belonging to Russia.

Likewise, Hamas claims all the territory of Israel “from the river to the sea.”

The Russian military has bombed civilian targets including power plants, schools and hospitals. Russia stands accused of abducting almost 20,000 Ukrainian children. A 2023 U.N. report called out the attacks on civilian women: “During Russian armed forces’ initial control of localities in Ukraine, many of the… rapes, and sexual violence were committed in the context of house-to-house searches.”

In its “narrative” of the Oct. 7 attack, the Hamas Media Office stated, “Avoiding harm to civilians, especially children, women and elderly people is a religious and moral commitment by all the (Hamas) fighters.” Over 1,200 civilians were murdered in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

At the same, too many so-called American “progressives” tilt toward Hamas. I am not certain what is progressive about supporting a gang of murderous, raping terrorists over the Middle East’s only democracy.

Israel is imperfect for sure, but so was the U.S. in how it waged World War II. The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt vowed, “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” If the U.S. could not live with the threat of Imperial Japan 4,000 miles across the Pacific from Hawaii, how can Israel be expected to tolerate Hamas on its very border?