At the same time, "Of course this administration is also committed to maintaining the greatest military in the history of the world and, if needed, to vigorously defend ourselves and our friends."
A hallmark trait of mania and grandiosity is the tendency of one suffering from them to speak of himself, his accomplishments and by extension those of his friends in superlatives. Hence boasts of being the world's sole military superpower and possessing the greatest military in the history of the world.
Every detail of such a person's life, even the most minute, mundane and tedious, becomes a matter of world, even historical, importance and of inestimable value, overshadowing all other events, even those affecting millions of other people: Wars, natural disasters, economic crises. Grandiloquent rhetoric is enlisted in the service of petty personal matters.
In responding to Richard Haass's introductory comments, Clinton said, "I thank you for referencing what has been the most difficult balancing act of my time as secretary of State, pulling off my daughter's wedding, which I kept telling people, as I traveled around the world to all of the hot spots, was much more stressful than anything else on my plate."
The multi-million dollar nuptials of the daughter of a former president and the son of two former congresspersons, one a convicted felon, and himself a multi-millionaire investment banker for a hedge fund, was a source of more concern - "stress" - for the head of the foreign office of the world's superpower than the nearly nine-year war in Afghanistan, the ongoing military occupation of Iraq, the devastating floods in Pakistan, the taunting of China by U.S.-led naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea, the economic catastrophe confronting tens of millions of Americans themselves and other matters only of interest to the victims and other billions of unimportant, disposable bit players in the grand drama of erecting a 21st century global architecture.
As with her biological, so with her politico-military family: "NATO remains the world's most successful alliance. Together with our allies, including new NATO members in Central and Eastern Europe, we are crafting a new strategic concept that will help us meet not only traditional threats but also emerging ones, like cybersecurity and nuclear proliferation. Just yesterday President Obama and I discussed these issues with NATO Secretary-General Rasmussen."
The North Atlantic military bloc's role in completing the violent dismemberment of Yugoslavia and in waging a war in Afghanistan that will begin its tenth year in three weeks does warrant the use of the superlative, though questionably so when linked with the word successful.
The U.S. is the unchallenged pioneer in and master of overseas outsourcing, from most of its once unrivaled industry to tens of millions of its jobs, and the same practice is employed in regard to its international military ambitions. If other countries are better positioned geographically and can do it less expensively, then Washington can get more war for the dollar, more bang for the buck. Thus in Clinton's words, "From Europe and North America to East Asia and the Pacific, we are renewing and deepening the alliances that are the cornerstone of global security and prosperity." It takes an entire village to further the geostrategic plans of its chief.
Regarding what is one of the projects the Obama-Clinton team inherited from its Bush-Rice forerunner - recruiting the most important nation ever as an American military ally - Clinton added, "India, the world's largest democracy, has a very large convergence of fundamental values and a broad range of both national and regional interests, and we are laying the foundation for an indispensable partnership. President Obama will use his visit in November to take our relationship to the next level." By clinching a reported $5 billion arms deal.
With Europe and much of the rest of Eurasia secured through NATO, the U.S. has expanded its military and geopolitical scope and currently "our strategy has been to reinvigorate America's commitment to be an active trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific and hemispheric leader."
Referring to the state in the first person as is the wont of grandiose political personalities, Clinton affirmed: "We are a nation that has always believed we have the power to shape our own destiny and to cut a new and better path, and frankly to bring along people who were like-minded from around the world."
Language like power, destiny, better path, around the world is reminiscent of claims made in Central Europe seventy-five years ago.
Humanity is not only bifurcated into good and bad, but is divided between leaders - rather one leader - and followers.
As to those who refuse to be led, "we are approaching the Iranian challenge as an example of American leadership in action." China and Russia, though nominal friends, also came in for their share of criticism, in Russia's case for the Caucasus war of two years ago and ensuing developments.
Friends are used as sounding boards to echo boasts and bravado, as mirrors for one's vanity, as flashy accoutrements and social adornment, but are never accorded the status of persons in their own right. Narcissism is a one-sided, zero-sum proposition: Acknowledging others' qualities is to distract and detract from one's own. Having more than any other is insufficient. Having the most, more than all others combined, is not enough. Anything less than all is unacceptable.
Therefore, "time and time again I hear, as I do interviews from Indonesia to the Democratic Republic of Congo to Brazil, how novel it seems to people that an official would come and take questions from the public. So we're not only engaging the public and expanding and explaining America's values and views, we're also sending a message to those leaders."
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