I don't pretend to know their hidden motives but I find it hilarious that you next to perfectly summarised their behaviour in a different way in one of your first posts of the thread.
These 'fake humanitarians' you dislike so much are very similar to the people you were looking to stand up for earlier. They become aware of something (because it become's newsworthy here when the UK decide to intervene) and they talk about it - you justify it for one group but not for another. You are being just as inconsistent as the people you criticise.The reason people go crazier if it happens closer to home is because it's not only more newsworthy to them but also because it's not expected to happen around here.