I came across the following paragraph in an article:

The idea of an ETHICAL FOREIGN POLICY first emerged in the early days of New Labour, when the then foreign secretary Robin Cook said Britain would introduce an ‘ETHICAL DIMENSION’ to its dealings with the world. Britain had a ‘MORAL RESPONSIBILITY’, said Cook, to make itself ‘ONCE AGAIN A FORCE FOR GOOD IN THE WORLD’. For all his PC, liberal credentials, Cook’s language was as elitist as that of old-fashioned imperialists, presenting an image of Britain as a crusader nation that could rectify the problems of the savage sections of the world with stern words, sanctions, maybe the occasional ‘ETHICAL WAR’.



R Cook was the British Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001.

"Britain once again a force for good in the world"? WTF, Britian has never been a good force. Invasion, colonization, killing, creating conflicts to benefit from, selling arms to evil foreign governments and dictators, not to mention selling drugs and forcing others to purchase them, are the "good things" they've been good at. These are simply facts.

And I guess to Brits, Opium War was an "ethical war".