I think of White Empire like a watermelon girded by rubber bands. Put one more band on the melon and nothing. Put ten more, it's fine. But pile them on, and in time, the whole thing explodes like a landmine. Tension builds and builds until it must unbuild; rapidly and violently. This is how I view Empire. It may seem like it's getting away with it, but it's really going away, war crime by war crime.

Each seeming notch on their belt—Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine—is in fact tightening it. Each braid on the noose—sanctions, sanctimoniousness, cinema—is sticking their own neck out. They say it's darkest before the dawn, yes, but it's also whitest before the dusk. We are witnessing the great fall of White Empire, not the great rewind.

This is hard to see in the moment, which is just hard. If you have a heart you're Palestinian, and your heart is broken. We are besieged on all sides by the massacre of all innocence, the bonfire of all vanities, the evisceration of all values. The Empire is openly led by child-killing rapists, and they don't seem to care who knows about it anymore. We're at the point where all the accoutrements of force are cast off, and it's just force majeure.

Clausewitz described this state in his book On War, and I think that's where we are. We're in World War III, if you include colored people. Clausewitz said, somewhat sardonically, “Attached to force are certain self-imposed, imperceptible limitations hardly worth mentioning, known as international law and custom, but they scarcely weaken it.” And here we are. International law is a joke and custom is a farce. They're just shooting starving people in front of us and not even bothering to cover it up.

This is a loss, a loss of many universes, indeed, but remember the word of Allah. “If you are suffering hardships, they too are suffering similar hardships, but what you can hope for from God, they cannot.” The wicked victories of Empire are in fact losses if you think a bit deeply, and beneath the censorship. The loss of international prestige, the loss of moral authority, the loss of military supremacy, these are all meaningless losses until they're not. Like bands on a watermelon, each seeming like a drop in the ocean, until POP. The Resistance is building and building pressure, while the Empire is blowing and blowing treasure. The attacks on children are not a sign of strength, that's all they can do now; they're a luxury terrorism force running on credit, and spending it like they're going out of business. Which they are. It's all a fire sale, not a display of real firepower. They are causing unspeakable hardship, certainly, but they are also suffering hardship that they don't speak about!

Everything Empire is throwing on the bonfire now was once important. Every value they espoused, every story they told, every debate they staged, they all held up Empire's power as much as any rifle or tower. Now they're burning the furniture to stay warm a little longer, and calling it a bright idea. It's not. Pride goeth before the fall, and who's proud of White Empire anymore?

All of the soft power that held up this Empire has been thrown to the wind as they go hard. But soft power is power, and if you use it you lose it. Such things take decades to build, and just days to tear down. The ability to look good while doing bad took a lot of effort, but it prevented a lot of resistance. The ability to moralize their mendacity was a pain in the ass, but it made people colonize themselves. And the illusion of military supremacy meant they didn't really have to use it much. And now this soft power is lost. A loss that seems as meaningless as the hundredth band on a melon, but believe me, it has a cost.

Think tanks are cheaper than real tanks, and it's better to fire off white papers than white paupers. Soft power is in fact the best power because it's cheap. Maintaining power authoritatively is expensive. They're abandoning soft power now not because they're strong but precisely because they're weak and have no other options. White Empire is throwing off all the accoutrements of soft power like its meaningless ballast, but it wasn't. That was real power, and they're really losing it. The Resistance is suffering hardships, certainly, but it's the Empire's ship that's softly sinking.

As Clausewitz said (I'm finally reading the whole book), “War is thus an act of force to compels our enemy to do our will,” and Empire cannot impose its will on anybody. It can kill, certainly, but the will to resist is only getting stronger. By starting not one but effectively three wars on Asia, Empire has stretched itself thin and thrown its enemies together. Now Russia is imposing its will on them, Iran is imposing its will on 'Israel', Yemen imposed its will on the US Navy, Palestine is still resisting, and China is laughing. At the same time—if the metaphorical watermelon were not already heavy laden—they are tariffing everyone in the world, effectively sanctioning themselves. How much more can the unmelaninated melon take?

It is easy (nay, hard) to see the losses in Palestine and think all is lost, but I remember always the words of Basil Al-Araj and the logic of every guerrilla fighter. Basil said, “Our direct human and material losses will be much greater than the enemy's, which is natural in guerrilla wars that rely on willpower, the human element, and the extent of patience and endurance. We are far more capable of bearing the costs, so there is no need to compare or be alarmed by the magnitude of the numbers.” Do I feel unalarmed? No, I feel a three-alarm fire every time I pick up the phone, but who am I to say? Basil paid with his life, and he never gave up. Who are we, who pay nothing, to complain about the cost? Again I return to the Quran, which says if you are losing, they are losing also, and that we have a hope the evildoers do not. I believe this even in my darkest moments, because the Resistance itself does.

Today the losses of Empire, of course, are covered up, like the taut skin of a watermelon, that maintains its solidity until the very last instant. America was, in fact, hit like a bullseye by Iran, right in the radio towers of Qatar. 'Israel' was run like a bell, with multiple military hits in addition to the infrastructure hits we all saw (Boom Boom Tel Aviv). Within Empire itself, the fact that their own population hates 'Israel' and wants no part of this is covered up only through violent repression, but repression is all costly. People may suffer, yes, but the oppressors suffer too! The last US government fell, this one is not looking so swell, and this is basically the last generation that won't tell 'Israel' to go to hell. Whereas soft power was cheap and fun (you get to lecture everybody and people applaud), applying hard power like this is expensive and miserable (you get yelled at and mocked).

The pressure is building and building, and the Empire itself keeps attaching more rubber bands, trying to go band for band with the devil himself. But God knows the he always gets his due, and it's coming. The founder of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin said, “Any entity founded on injustice and plunder is destined to be destroyed,” and he even gave the date. He said “I say that by 2027, there will be no Israel,” and I think the loss of the imperial horcrux will take down the whole imperial state. I say by 2035, there will be no United States.

I know it seems far away, but remember the watermelon. Each act of resistance is a rubber band, and the resistance to resistance heaps on even more tension, unplanned. The unbearable tension you feel bearing upon your heart is bearing upon them also, as much as they try to censor it. They're just building up pressure with their lies, not relieving it at all. And remember that what the Resistance can hope for from Allah, the White Empire cannot, because they're evil. As the saying doesn't go, it's whitest before the fall of White Empire.

Thank you to everyone who's tipped or gotten paid subs this month. I lost Medium money after October 7th (you can't go hard on Medium) and only now have my earnings recovered, nearly two years later. I am just a beggar holding cardboard signs on the side of the Internet and I appreciate the support.