Pot/Kettle No. II: International Affairs Edition

the Bush admin.'s chutzpah would be amusing, at this point, if it weren't so damn destructive. And that goes well beyond Iraq.

"Any attempts to change the [Anti-Ballistic Missile] treaty will shake the strategic root and trunk of world peace and security." --Russian President Vladimir Putin urging the Bush administration in February 2001 not to abandon the pact, months before it ignored him and withdrew anyway.

"These are treaty obligations, and everyone is expected to live up to treaty obligations." --Condoleezza Rice lecturing the Russians last week not to scuttle a 17-year-old weapons treaty with Europe.

It's a truism by now that the Bush administration has damaged our moral authority in the world, but it's easy to forget that Iraq was only the apotheosis of this problem. I wish Putin wouldn't scrap Russia's deal with NATO; but, after the ABM treaty, steel tariffs, and the Geneva Conventions, you've got to admire Rice's chutzpah in demanding his fealty to "treaty obligations" -- particularly after the example we set for him in 2001.

The stalled WTO negotiations - at standstill because of the U.S. and E.U.'s reluctance to cut subsidies and tariffs on agriculture - are another example.