When asked, during his joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, about civilian casualties, President Obama stated:

"We have an interest in reducing civilian casualties not because it's a problem for President Karzai. We have an interest in reducing civilian casualties because I don't want civilians killed."

Did anyone else notice how quickly and facilely he shifted from "we" to "I"? I find this most revealing.

It makes me think that even when he said "we", he wasn't speaking for "we Americans". Maybe he was talking about himself and his advisors, or maybe he was even lapsing into Pluralis Majestatis ("the royal 'we'", as when the Queen of England says "We are not amused").

But it's a cinch that when he said "I don't want civilians killed", he was speaking for himself and not for America. And that's not just because "it's always about him", although it is just another reminder of his narcissism (and we're not talking garden-variety narcissism here, but what a psychoanalyst might call "malignant narcissism" or even "narcissistic sociopathy").

I think Barack Obama said "I don't want civilians killed" rather than "we don't want civilians killed" because Barack Obama doesn't really consider himself an American as much as he considers himself a citizen of-, and perhaps even president of-, the world.

And furthermore, Barack Obama doesn't think of America as a country that cares about civilian casualties in time of war. Even though he's now the Commander-in-Chief, he still thinks the American military is just "bombing villages and air-raiding civilians". Barack Obama sees America as an arrogant, imperialist, racist, oppressive, exploitative, warmongering nation. But of course, now that he's running things, he'll see that America gets its comeuppance.

As with his health care plan, it doesn't matter what America wants; all that matters is what Barack Obama wants.