This is a criminally short-sighted policy. For seventy years, American prosperity and influence have been based on a network of allies who worked with us, not because they were coerced, but because they shared our values.

These documents imply that the ​“terrorists” are the brave teachers, neighbors, librarians, and community members blowing whistles, protecting students, keeping books on shelves, advocating for trans rights, and organizing for economic and social equity.

Our decaying empire stumbles forward like a wounded beast, unable to learn from its disasters, crippled by arrogance and incompetence, torching the rule of law and fantasizing that indiscriminate industrial violence will regain a lost hegemony.