This book does not attempt to recount every event that unfolded during Operation Metro Surge. Others will write those histories in greater detail.
Instead, Invasion takes a ten-thousand-foot view. It examines a larger and more consequential question: when a government uses excessive force against the people it claims to protect, who retains public legitimacy?
The answer is not determined by uniforms, statutes, weapons, or institutional authority alone. Legitimacy ultimately belongs to the side the public continues to recognize as lawful, credible, restrained, and worthy of consent.