US to have military superiority because it is 'very special': Rice September 26, 2002 AFP
The United States should maintain its military superiority in the world and keep other nations from challenging it because it is "a very special country," a top White House official said late Wednesday.
"The United States is a very special country in that when we maintain this position of military strength that we have now, we do it in support of a balance of power that favors freedom," said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, appearing on PBS's "The HewsHour with Jim Lehrer" program. She made the comment as she defended a new US national security strategy that was unveiled last Friday and that lays the foundation for preemptive military strikes.
The strategy also declares that Washington will not allow any other country to attain military superiority or even parity with the United States.
The document has been roundly criticized at home and abroad as a claim to US dominance in the world.
Rice said that in its quest to maintain its current military status, the United States did not want to act alone and welcomed military contributions from other like-minded states.
"But if it comes to allowing another adversary to reach military parity with the United States in the way that the Soviet Union did, no, the United States does not intend to allow that to happen," the national security adviser said.
"Because when that happens, there will not be a balance of power that favors freedom," she stressed. "There will be a balance of power that keeps part of the world in tyranny the way that the Soviet Union did."
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