POLITICIANS KNOW that many people need an enemy. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu made this observation last week on a visit to Boston. An enemy is a force to rally against, a way for people and nations to define themselves.
Consider apartheid, which was deeply embedded in and helped define the identity of black and white South Africans. It was an enemy to unite against, Tutu said, and once it was gone, its long-fought-for demise caused an identity crisis.
But South Africa is hardly the only country to grapple with enemies. During the Cold War, the West defined itself in part as an enemy of Communism. And today the United States has to grapple with the brutal enemy of fundamentalist-fueled terrorism.
The challenge across the globe is to develop a national identity that transcends enemies. Tutu makes the spiritual case, but there are practical reasons as well.
In the United States, voters must decide whether it's George Bush or John Kerry who has the clearest view of how to defend against enemies while keeping the nation's core identity intact.
Enemies linger -- even after they are vanquised -- in how stories are told about them. One version is that the enemy was beaten and the country was ennobled. A more troubling version is that victory led to vindictiveness. Or as the 9/11 Commission report says, American intelligence agencies were slow to share information because they were limited by "Cold War assumptions" that "are no longer appropriate."
In Iraq, the United States has to win the peace. At home, the United States has to win a peace of mind that protects the public from being victimized long after the enemy is gone and keeps foreign policy on an even keel, not hobbled by vengence.
Trying to build a cultural identity that is not warped by enemies is a call for social, political, and psychological maturity. It is a solemn invitation not to look for battles to join. It forces politicians to do more than rally the public against the evil "other."
This maturity means countering the claim that God is on "our" side with the possibility that God is everyone's side.
In Tutu's book "God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time," he writes, "if we are truly to understand that God loves all of us, we must recognize that he loves our enemies, too. God does not share our hatred, no matter what the offense we have endured."
It is a concept that can be heard by religious and secular ears. It should be heeded by America's leading politicians, who may be guided by personal religious convictions but must ultimately lead under a banner of civic conviction with a vision of fulfilling the country's great human potential.