"I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom," George W. Bush famously said.

I've never been convinced.

I think plenty of people don't give a fig about freedom – not their own and certainly not anyone else's. And I think there are those whose most heartfelt desire is to eradicate the freedom of others.

But there is a moral elite so devoted to the cause of freedom that they are willing to martyr themselves to prevent the future from becoming the nightmare George Orwell imagined: "a boot stamping on a human face – forever."

Two such heroes – Jimmy Lai and Dmitry Muratov– are profiled in two documentary films. I unhesitatingly recommend them.

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Once upon a time, Mahmoud Abbas inspired hope.

Elected president of the Palestinian Authority after Yasser Arafat's death in 2004, he wore a tie and jacket, not battle fatigues. He was a nationalist, not a jihadist. He denounced terrorism "by any party and in all its shapes and forms." A year earlier, Ariel Sharon, then Israel's prime minister, had called him "a responsible man."

Turns out, it was a fairy tale.

Addressing the Revolutionary Council of Fatah last month, Mr. Abbas asserted: "They say that Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews, and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. Not true."

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It was called the "scramble for Africa." In the 19^th century, European empires carved the continent into colonies they could exploit. A 21^st century scramble for Africa is now underway – and it's no less exploitative. The neo-imperialists are Chinese Communists, Russian nationalists, and Islamists.

Increasing instability in too many African countries is making it easy for them. Since 2017, there have been 17 military coups in the sub-Saharan region.

The most recent occurred last week in Gabon, a country that had been ruled – or, more precisely, misruled – by one family since 1967.

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"A fool is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing," Oscar Wilde famously quipped. In Milwaukee last week, the Republican candidates for president – minus one Donald J. Trump – quarreled over both the price and value of American support for Ukraine.

Only Nikki Haley crunched the numbers correctly. From the February 2022 Russian invasion to August of this year, the United States has committed roughly $43 billion to Ukraine. As Ms. Haley suggested, that's just 3.5 percent of U.S. spending on the Defense Department over the same period.

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A growing number of Republicans now think the U.S. should abandon Ukraine and – by extension – give Russian dictator Vladimir Putin a great and historic victory.

A CNN/SSRS poll released earlier this month quantified the trend: 71 percent of GOP voters don't want Congress to authorize additional funding for Ukraine. Fifty-nine percent think the U.S. has done enough to help Ukrainians defend their independence, their homeland, and their families.

By contrast, 62 percent of Democrats support new funding for Ukraine, and 61 percent say the U.S. should do more to prevent Mr. Putin from winning the barbaric war he launched in February of 2022.

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