With regard to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments in today’s New York Times, a friend just grumbled that for Putin “to think he can play us like a fiddle for his own gain” requires significant hubris. I suggest that for us to object requires even more.

What makes us think Putin’s behavior is any brassier than our own? We claim the right to unilaterally decide who and who does not deserve punishment among the world’s dictators and evil regimes. We threaten to rain missiles on sovereign territory where we have no legal right to intervene alone. And we claim moral superiority to be the world’s policeman and to step on the slippery slope towards regime change–while claiming disinterest in both.

Instead of feeling outrage at Putin, we ought to feel shame that it was he, not we, who has pursued a potentially successful diplomatic solution–even if it may yet devolve into disaster.

Putin’s closing comment evokes Senator Obama at the 2004 Democratic Convention: “We’re not red states. We’re not blue states. We’re the United States”

Putin’s version is that it’s “extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

We need to knock off this “exceptional” nonsense. Human reactions to pride and humility are universal. As well thought out as President’s remarks were Tuesday, the braggadocio is counterproductive and suggests more about our insecurity than our security.

Meanwhile, we now have Russian support for containing Syrian chemical weapons and have postponed U.S. threats of punitive military action. Since many Americans believed the threat of U.N. Security Council veto by Russia and China rendered attempts at a multilateral action useless, it’s overall been a good week for the U.S.

Some might even say it’s been an exceptional one.