At least two people I know complained about the "sudden" strong reaction to Russian invasion of Ukraine. The main complaint was "we don't react when Americans do something similar!"
Well, for one, I did react, from Viet Nam (as you might know, I am that old) to second invasion of Iraq. Then, "we" didn't react to a number of similarly unsavory Soviet/Russian escapades, from Afghanistan to Syria. We did react on previous instances of "friendly assistance" in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
So, what's the difference? Well, Afghanistan and Syria are "there", Ukraine is "here", in our backyard. It has nothing to do with "spheres of interest" - Ukraine is Europe, our continent. It's that simple. This time, we feel threatened ourselves. For those "others", our "deep concern" was mere words, our empathy - meh...
Sad.
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