The United States has spent more than a century insisting it is not an empire. This is why the U.S. operation in Venezuela feels, for once, more like an unmasked moment of truth than a one-off policy decision.

If any era has demanded genuine leadership capable of transformation, it is now. No more antics. No more kleptocratic politics. What we need is clarity, morality, and incorruptible resolve at the helm.

Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve observed an indiscriminate pattern: prejudice against Muslims has grown from isolated acts into an institutionalized mechanism — embedded across communities, workplaces, government agencies, and the media.