The verdict is in. After 16 years of death and destruction in the Middle East and Afghanistan at the hands of the U.S. national-security establishment, America is now facing four more years of the same.

How do we know this? Because President Trump has now clearly signaled that he intends to travel the Bush-Obama road.

First of all, there is the Muslim ban on those seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations. Trump says that he is imposing the ban to keep Americans safe from terrorists who would do American harm if they were permitted to enter the United States.

Second, there is a total disconnect in Trump’s mind as to the cause of anti-American terrorism, especially among Muslims. He has made it clear that his mindset is the same as that of Bush and Obama — that the terrorists just hate us for our freedom and values and that U.S interventionism has nothing to do with anti-American terrorism.

In fact, with Trump it’s actually worse than it was with Bush and Obama. While they tried to threat the needle and claim that their interventions were aimed at “the terrorists” or “extreme Muslims,” Trump has clearly bought into the whole “Islam is at war with the West” paradigm that afflicts the most extreme elements in American society.

One thing is for sure: Like Bush and Obama, Trump is mentally and psychologically unable to recognize that the real cause for anger and hatred against the United States, especially among Muslims, is the massive death and destruction that the U.S. national-security state has wreaked and continues to wreak in the Middle East.

In fact, that inability to recognize the U.S. government as the root cause of the anger and hatred that manifests itself in anti-American terrorism afflicts many more people than Trump, Bush, and Obama. It also afflicts the U.S. mainstream media, the political left, and conservatives.

Consider all those protests against Trump’s immigration ban. Look at the signs the protestors are carrying. They’re all about the immigration ban. I haven’t seen one single sign protesting Trump’s continuation of Bush-Obama interventionism in the Middle East.

In fact, it’s the exact opposite. Virtually every editorial and op-ed in the mainstream media dutifully follows the Bush-Obama-Trump line — that ISIS is so dangerous that it is necessary for the U.S. government to continue intervening in the Middle East and wreaking perpetual death and destruction.

Unfortunately, Trump has immediately fallen into the Pentagon’s and CIA’s war on terrorism quicksand. Within the first week of taking power, he approved a military raid in Yemen (yes, Yemen!) presented by to him by the U.S. national-security establishment that resulted in the deaths of two American citizens: 36-year-old Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens a U.S. serviceman and Nawar al-Awlaki (take a look at her picture — it’s important to see what this little girl who just had her life snuffed out looked like). She was the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American citizen that the U.S. national-security establishment assassinated without benefit of due process of law and trial by jury six year ago. You will recall that the U.S. national-security establishment also assassinated Newar’s brother, 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, in 2011.

They weren’t the only ones killed in the latest raid in Yemen. U.S. officials estimated that 14 al-Qaeda (remember them?) militants were killed. Yemenis claimed that the dead including 59 combatants and civilians, including women.

The aim of the raid? According to the UK Mirror, “A senior military official told NBC News the aim of the raid was to seize intelligence, including computer equipment.”

So, there you have it: Death and destruction in Yemen, a country that Congress has not declare war against, on orders of President Donald Trump, with the aim of grabbing some computers belong to al-Qaeda (which was the national-security state’s official enemy before ISIS), that might have some “intelligence” in them.

That’s what 9-year-old Nawar al-Awlaki died for. That’s what Petty Officer Owens died for. Like the 58,000 plus U.S. soldiers who were sacrificed in Vietnam, that 8-year-old American girl and that 36-year-old American man died for nothing.

Let’s be clear: ISIS is not coming to get us. Neither is al-Qaeda. The same for the dictators of Syria, Yemen, Libya, and the other seven countries on Trump’s Muslim ban list. The same for the Islamic dictators of Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan. The same for the people trying to overthrow those dictators.

None of those people is coming to get us, take over the federal government, and run the IRS and HUD. The conflicts over there are about who is going to rule the Middle East and Afghanistan. Whoever prevails is not coming to get us and take over the United States.

In fact, make no mistake about it: most of the violence, chaos, and disorder in the Middle East are rooted in U.S interventionism in that part of the world. For example, ISIS, the national-security state’s newest official boogeyman, is a direct result of the U.S. illegal and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iraq, a country that never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so.

There is one and only one reason that people of Muslim faith engage in anti-American terrorism: They are retaliating against the U.S. government and the American people for the death and destruction that the Pentagon and the CIA have been wreaking and continue to wreak on Muslims and others in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

What is both pathetic and sad is that Trump has already announced, within one week of assuming power, is that he intends to continue unleashing the Pentagon and the CIA to do what they have been doing for the past 16 years of Bush and Obama. He has also announced that he intends to build up the military establishment, thereby enabling it to wreak even more death and destruction around the world.

That’s why Trump imposed his Muslim ban: He’s essentially saying to the American people: “Get ready. We’re going to continue bombing and assassinating people as part of our war against ISIS but don’t worry — I’ll keep you safe from the inevitable retaliation with my Muslim ban.”

It’s not going to work. As I have repeatedly asked, Can they keep everyone in shopping malls and office buildings safe from bombs and shooters? Can they put metal detectors everywhere? Just ask the families of victims from terrorist attacks here in the United States or in Europe. And how do they purport to protect American tourists traveling in Europe and elsewhere?

It’s really too bad. All that Trump had to do is pull the troops out of the Middle East and Afghanistan and bring them home, immediately, without killing one more person, including 8-year-old Nawar al-Awlaki. That would have meant the end of anti-American terrorism, which would have meant no more war on terrorism, including Trump’s Muslim ban.

But then again, that also would have meant a severe diminution in the power, influence, and taxpayer-funded resources of the U.S. national-security establishment, which is the undoubtedly the biggest reason why Trump has now chosen to travel the 16-year-old road of death and destruction, loss of liberty, and out-of-control federal spending of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.