From invading a sovereign country and forcibly seizing its sitting president, to the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE officer in Minnesota, a chilling logic emerges. The US government is now sliding into a Hobbesian state of nature at home and abroad, where force replaces law, and power overrides accountability.

Once, Washington at least offered excuses — democracy, freedom, human rights. Now, even that pretense is fading.

With plans to raise US military spending to $1.5 trillion by 2027 while withdrawing from 66 international organizations, the US is dismantling the very rules-based system it once claimed to lead.

So people are asking — quietly, uneasily: Is the United States preparing for another world war?