U.S. ALWAYS NEEDS A GOOD ENEMY

World affairs experts are suggesting that the United States needs Iraq's Saddam Hussein -- or a bad-guy nemesis like him -- to rally support for U.S. foreign policy and defense spending. The recent past lends some credence to this analysis. A partial listing of U.S. enemies has included the likes of Manuel Noriega and the Ayatollah Khomeini. Current contenders, in addition to Saddam, include Moammar Ghadafi, Slobodan Milosevic and Fidel Castro.

A tangible enemy helps unite the nation and justify a military $1.4 million strong and costing about $280 billion a year, equipped and trained to fight two wars at once if necessary, analysts say. The end of the Cold War officially put Moscow in the U.S. friend column, shifting focus to new foes.

There is a long historical basis for this. Absent extraordinary circumstances, it is probably impossible for most democracies to sustain warlike attitudes without demonizing foes. During World War II, the aggressive warfare launched by Axis powers Germany, Japan and Italy supplied more than enough for this purpose. No sooner was that awful conflict over than the Soviets under Josef Stalin, our erstwhile wartime allies, brutalized vast territories and launched the Cold War. The period from the outbreak of war in 1939 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 can fairly be described as this century's 50-year war against the totalitarians.

Those demons have been properly tossed into the dustbin of history, but rogue national leaders pop up all the time, challenging a new international order that must look to resolute U.S. leadership for guiding purpose.