Lots of people have linked to Ian Buruma's article Wielding the moral club, or is it Hands-off Left is the Right of old available here and here. He says that the leftist critics have

set themselves morally above the Right. So why do they appear to be so much keener to denounce the US than to find ways to liberate Iraqis and others from their murderous fuhrers? And how can anybody, knowing the brutal costs of political violence, especially in poor countries split by religious and ethnic divisions, be so insouciant as to call for more aggression?

Alas, the main issue, for them, is the power of the US.

Anti-Americanism may have grown fiercer than it was during the Cold War. It is a common phenomenon that when the angels fail to deliver, the demons become more fearsome. The socialist debacle, then, contributed to the resentment of US triumphs.

But something else happened at the same time. In a curious way, Left and Right began to change places. The expansion of global capitalism, which is not without negative consequences, to be sure, turned leftists into champions of cultural and political nationalism. When Marxism was still a potent ideology, the Left sought universal solutions for the ills of the world. Now globalisation has become another word for an assault on native culture and identity. So the old Left has turned conservative.

This defence of cultural authenticity comes in the guise of anti-imperialism, which is of course the same, these days, as anti-Americanism. Israel plays a significant part in this, as the perceived cat's-paw of US imperialism in the Middle East and the colonial enemy of Palestinian nationalism. Israel and the US have a way of triggering the reflexes of European colonial guilt that overrides almost anything else. Israeli policies, just as US policies, are often wrong and sometimes even wicked, but even if they were always right, Israel would still be hated as the Western invader on Arab territory.

The moral paralysis of the Left, when it comes to non-Western tyrants, may also have a more sinister explanation. Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit calls it moral racism. When Indians kill Muslims, or Africans kill Africans, or Arabs kill Arabs, Western pundits pretend not to notice, or find historical explanations or blame the scars of colonialism. But if white men – whether they are American, European, South African or Israeli – harm people of colour hell is raised.

If one compares Western reporting of events in Palestine or Iraq with far more disturbing news in Liberia or Central Africa, there is a disproportion which suggests that non-Western people cannot be held to the same moral standards as us. One could claim this is only right, since we can only take responsibility for our own kind. But this would be a rather racist view of world affairs....

The same double standard applies all over. From the modern PRC point of view, it's fine to murder a tens of millions of your own people, but let's not talk about that--let's focus all our hatred on the Japanese.