From US Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments on 2 March 2014 on the CBS News show “Face the Nation”:

Well, it’s an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning willful choice by president Putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia is in violation of its international obligations … You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext.

Now, substitute “United States” for Russia, “president Bush” for president Putin, and “Iraq” for Ukraine and see what happens:

Well, it’s an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning willful choice by president Putin president Bush to invade another country. Russia The United States is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine Iraq. Russia The United States is in violation of its international obligations … You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext [like the US invasion of Mexico in 1848 !!!!].

We do not mean to condone Russia’s use of military force in the Crimean Peninsula. But if Russia’s military actions in the Ukraine are wrongful, then so was the US’s pre-emptive invasion of Iraq in 2003 … and the US invasion of Mexico in 1848. Right?

Addendum: Eugene Robinson, a columnist for the Washington Post, recently expressed the same point in this op-ed of 3 March 2014. Here is an excerpt:

Is it just me, or does the rhetoric about the crisis in Ukraine sound as if all of Washington is suffering from amnesia? We’re supposed to be shocked — shocked! — that a great military power would cook up a pretext to invade a smaller, weaker nation? I’m sorry, but has everyone forgotten the unfortunate events in Iraq a few years ago?