As we have learned over the centuries, when it comes to burning witches, it doesn’t really matter if you have burned a real witch or just someone who, in your fevered, partisan, and paranoid imagination, could easily become a witch in the future. It is the burning that is the message.
If this feels distressing and repugnant, remember that for decades the U.S. surreptitiously meddled in regime support and change in sovereign nations around the world.