On the recordMay 8, 2008
I believe that our foreign policy has been adrift since the end of the Cold War because we have been unable and unwilling to prioritize. Our national case of ADD forces us to focus on whatever international objective flits across our consciousness. We have an enormous national ego which causes us to believe that we can simultaneously and successfully pursue all our objectives, and that we can defeat evil everywhere we choose to notice it. As a Nation, we punish politicians and pundits who dare to deflate our enormous national ego. Our bureaucracy opposes any effort to prioritize our objectives because that effort conflicts with the bureaucratic imperative to please every one of its bureaus. Imagine having to go to the Moldova desk in the State Department and say that Moldova's sovereignty over its Transdniestra region cannot be a major national priority.
Source
govinfo.gov
