Despite numerous credible warnings from senior staff, its intelligence services, and its law enforcement apparatus, a government fails to prevent an attack that kills 3,000 of its citizens in its largest city, and at its military headquarters.
Within 24 hours, the leaders of that government begin a systematic program of diverting attention away from the real attackers and toward their personal enemy of long standing.
Consistently providing spurious rationales and misleading "evidence," they convince their citizens that their personal enemy is the national enemy.
Against all historical precedent, they prosecute a war against their personal enemy that causes thousands of casualties to its citizens and the civilians in the personal enemy's country.
In addition to the human suffering and loss, the war diverts billions of dollars to political supporters of the government's leaders, including a company partially owned by one of those leaders.
So what's that word I'm looking for?
Oh, right.
Treason.