Where Is the Enemy?
Where Is the Enemy? Some governments, when confronted with public questions, choose to create enemies rather than provide answers. It is an easy way to escape responsibility, because accountability means acknowledging mistakes, explaining performance, and enduring criticism. But when every problem can be blamed on an “enemy,” there is no need to discuss the roots of those problems. Costs, corruption, and incompetence become the result of conspiracies. Public dissatisfaction is turned into foreign provocation. Critics become foreign agents, and political rivals become threats to national security. The problem begins when this narrative moves from foreign policy into domestic politics, where the government portrays opponents as enemies rather th...