insurgents

By 1964, with U.S. “military advisers” on the ground supporting the South Vietnamese government against the communist insurgents of the North, President Lyndon Johnson and his advisers decided — foolishly, in retrospect — to commit U.S. troops.

"In a series of three precise and successive strikes, the fleeing terrorists were decisively engaged, resulting in the neutralisation of over 30 insurgents," he said.

Yet these political insurgents seemed to know precisely which powerful interests were keeping them in debt.

When rural Republicans blocked a voucher program to allow students to use state dollars to pay for private school in 2023, he funded their primary challengers, replacing long-time incumbents with freshman insurgents.

Realism may still command the heights of American fiction, but insurgents are in it to win it.