"It's the tendency to define global challenges as we would like them to be and not as they are," Lt. General H.R. McMaster just told us at a Council on Foreign Relations forum. He was referring to what he calls "strategic narcissism," extending the meaning to include nations and leaders "seeing things only in relation to ourselves," lacking the perspectives of others, and "sometimes in the process being our own worst enemy."
Narcissism is a subject McMaster knows well, having spent a year in the hellhole as National Security Advisor to the current Oval Office occupant. His remarks and responses to questions today reminded me of what I once respected about him after, for example, reading his brilliant 1997 book Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam. The book documented the role lying played in deepening and prolonging the Vietnam War. One would have thought that this experience might have kept him as far away as possible from the current president. I guess the allure of a top White House position can be a very powerful thing.
