Never have we needed moral heroes than we need them now. But what is a moral hero? Let's start with who certainly isn't a moral hero - Donald Trump. And Ian Borg, who out of his servile need to stroke the great narcissist's ego nominated the American President for the Nobel Peace Prize.
That's the same Trump whose military struck a girls' school in Southern Iran killing 150 schoolgirls. UNESCO labelled it a grave violation of humanitarian law. Tens of small coffins were carried through the streets in a heart wrenching mass funeral to the backdrop of their parents' anguished wailing. But maybe the school wasn't intentionally targeted. Maybe those girls were just collateral damage. An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps compound was just next door. Maybe this was just a tragedy caused by wrong intelligence or inaccurate targeting.
Not the same can be said about the two survivors of a military strike against an alleged Venezuelan drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean. The boat had already been destroyed and its cargo sunk to the bottom of the sea. The two men were clinging on for dear life when Trump's military finished them off with another strike. The Washington Post reported that US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to SEAL Team Six to leave no survivors.
Similarly America's sinking of an Iranian naval vessel in international waters off Sri Lanka was no mistake. The Iranian warship, Iris Dena, and it sailors had been attending a ceremonial parade and military exercises organised by India. The US knew that, because its own navy took part. 74 other countries participated. One condition for participation was that the military officers and vessels had to be unarmed. The USA knew that too. They knew the Iranian frigate was unarmed and couldn't fight back. Yet an American submarine torpedoed the Iranian vessel, sinking it in just two to three minutes and killing over 87 unarmed sailors. Pete Hegseth bragged about inflicting "silent death". When Trump was asked why the US Navy had torpedoes the Iranian ship instead of seizing it, Trump replied that one of his commanders had suggested it was "more fun" that way.
In the meantime the whole of the Middle East is a conflagration. Trump's Whitehouse revelled in the carnage uploading a chilling social media video with clips of Hollywood movies such as Braveheart, Gladiator, Superman and TopGun interspersed with real kill-shot footage of the attacks in Iran. The death toll rises by the minute.
That's not to say that the barbaric leadership of the Iranian Islamic Republic didn't deserve to be removed. For decades Iran has been threatening its neighbours, the entire region and the whole world. It's been exporting and funding terrorism and inflicting death and misery, fomenting brutal violence, often against innocent people. Its chants of death to America and death to Israel were incessant. Its intentions to develop a nuclear weapon with which to increase its ability to cause chaos were clear. Most importantly, the regime's willingness to murder its own people at industrial levels exposed the inhumanity and brutality of a regime that will do anything to retain power. Even after a whole week of powerful bombing of Iran, the mighty military machines of Israel and the USA have only inflicted a small fraction of the deaths caused by the Islamic regime when it suppressed its own people in January
Nobody in the world will grieve the downfall of the Ayatollahs if and when it happens - except for Vladimir Putin. Iranians will have better prospects for a peaceful prosperous future and the world will be a better place without the medieval brutality of the Iranian clerics.
Yet that hardly justifies international crimes such as sinking an unarmed ship in international waters. It doesn't justify the killing of 150 girls at their school desks. This is what Donald Trump is up to - and his secretary of war celebrates those horrific acts of bravado with more barbaric threats which sound increasingly like those issued by the most extreme Iranian clerics.
This is all Donald Trump's doing. This is the man who Ian Borg nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump has ignited a war that has already sucked in multiple countries - Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and of course Iran, Israel and the USA. Thousands have already lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands more have been displaced or injured. Vital shipping lanes are effectively closed. Oil and gas producing facilities have shut down. Death, destruction and global economic disruption can all be blamed on the man Ian Borg nominated for the Nobel peace prize.
Ian Borg knew Trump was no man of peace. But Borg bragged about nominating the US President to ingratiate himself with him. That's not moral heroism, that's cynical opportunism. Robert Abela even considered joining Trump's ridiculous Board of Peace.
Malta's small size should not preclude it from denouncing what is wrong. Using military power to threaten the sovereignty of other nations is clearly wrong. But Ian Borg and his boss Robert Abela won't denounce it. Their cocky bravado melts into quivering jelly when faced with a powerful bully like Donald Trump. At least they could have kept silent. But bragging that we've nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace prize is repulsive and deplorable.
We know that Ian Borg is no moral hero. This is a man who snatched a piece of land from a mentally ill elderly gentleman and whose testimony in that case was considered unreliable by the court. This is a man who built a swimming pool illegally on that land and who lacks the decency to comply with the law. As for Robert Abela we have the sworn testimony of a sitting judge confirming his top priority.
Our government had the opportunity to stand out as a true defender of the fundamental principles set out in the UN charter. Labour had the opportunity to stand up to those who breached international law. Malta could have clearly stated its position in favour of human life and against military aggression. Instead it chose to grovel to Donald Trump - and nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.