America's Great Villain Creation Set

America needs its villains. At least it thinks it does.

Think back over the past thirty years or so and review the standard operating political strategy of leaders faced with foreign policy adversaries. Whenever a President needs to muster the support of public opinion against a person, place or an ideology, it’s always in his best interest to put a face on “evil.”

How many of you remember Ayatollah Khomeini, Moammar Gadhafi, and Manuel Noriega? How many of you knew of them before they became public enemy, number one? Certainly, this rogue’s gallery won’t make any humanitarian lists and also justly deserve the infamy they engendered, but you can notice political strategy of creating a villain.

Ronald Reagan did it to an entire nation when he referred to the former Soviet Union as the “Empire of Evil.” Our current President Bush has spread the brush more broadly with the “Axis of Evil.”

And some of these villains were once allies. Saddam Hussein was provided with weapons and support during his war with Iraq. Manuel Noriega was practically handpicked by our intelligence agencies as the leader of Panama. Osama Bin Ladin was also provided with weapons in Afghanistan while rebels warred with Soviet soldiers.

It’s easy to see why this strategy has to be employed but in many cases it can be a blunt instrument and in other instances, it can hide larger, more troublesome problems. Creating a symbolic embodiment of evil in one person can help put the face on the “bad guys” for the media consuming public, but it can do little, in many instances, to alleviate the source of the problem.

In the case of how the Bush administration has elevated the villain status of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi into a class with our murder’s row, it causes a big problem because the insurgency is so much larger than one man. If Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is “smoked out,” will that end the insurgency? No. Even if Osama Bin Ladin is tracked down, Al Qaida will still be a threat.

It becomes a scenario that if we catch “fill in the blank,” all our troubles will be over. In the case of Iraq, catching Abu Musab al-Zarqawi will make little difference. The insurgency problem needs a broader, more systematic and long-term approach.

So, the next time America target’s a new enemy, make sure you know the difference between an enemy and a solution to a problem.