(CNN) -- All the self-righteous huffing and puffing in Washington over Ukraine jars on European and especially Russian ears after the multiple U.S.-led invasions and interventions in other people's countries of recent years. It's difficult to say what is more astonishing: the double standards exhibited by the White House, or the apparent total lack of self-awareness of U.S. officials. Secretary of State John Kerry risked utter ridicule when he declared it unacceptable to invade another country on a "completely trumped-up pretext," or just because you don't like its current leadership. Iraq in 2003 springs instantly to mind. This is exactly what George W. Bush and Tony Blair did when they "trumped up" the supposed threat posed by the hated Saddam Hussein's fabled weapons of mass destruction.
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U.S. President Barack Obama has charged Vladimir Putin of breaching international law, writes Simon Tisdall
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Tisdall: It is Obama, following in Bush's footsteps, who has repeatedly and cynically flouted international law
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This is the biggest foreign test of Obama's presidency, he writes
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In many ways, Putin is an unredeemed Cold War throwback, he says
@placeholder and Kerry seem to have calmed down a little since the crisis first broke.