Obama is holding lengthy phone conversations with Putin, explaining to the Russian president that his invasion of Ukraine violates international law.
These conversations are a royal waste of time. Putin couldn’t care less about international law. To him, Russia us exceptional, it is the new future world leader that exists on a different plane from tiresome international accords and laws.
Obama’s international advisors are not very educated because he routinely addresses Putin in terms that are not likely to work.
Clarissa's Blog 
Russians could say, not incorrectly, that USA has violated international law itself when desiring to attack Middle East countries.
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And that’s exactly what they are saying. Which is why I believe this is a ridiculous line of argument for Obama to make.
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That is very debatable. And the U.S., unlike Russia, did not just invade Iraq all by itself, it first went to the U.N. and got a lot of other countries lined up in support. It also did not turn Iraq into a permanent colony and never took a drop of the oil from Iraq.
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May be, they were also discussing “a Coasean deal”, from your Link Post. A conversation that lasted 1.5 hours had to include more than “you are bad guys, stop now.”
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Australia is getting this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsarbeitsdienst
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” To him, Russia is exceptional, it is the new future world leader that exists on a different plane from tiresome international accords and laws.”
Sounds shockingly similar to American exceptionalism.
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That’s the thing, any nation needs to consider itself exceptional in order to exist. But when this (very silly) belief is supplemented with a nuclear arsenal an enormous territory and huge resources. . . that’s when things become scary.
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