Diplomacy is often an exercise in willful blindness, but there comes a point when reality completely shatters the fiction. For America’s foreign policy establishment, that moment has arrived in Spain.

The July 30 collapse of Ceuta shattered the fiction of Spanish sovereignty, exposing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s sanctimonious strategic deterrence. For years, he lectured allies on decolonization while exempting Spain’s own enclaves, but Morocco — once again — called his bluff. Rabat’s engineered surge of 50,000 to 60,000 migrants met a pathetic Madrid response of just 60 soldiers and 30 Civil Guard officers. As juvenile facilities ballooned to 2,400% capacity and 67 people died, Sánchez offered public relations spin instead of a real security blueprint. This aspiring dictator sowed regional hypocrisy, and Morocco harvested it. Washington must cease endorsing the fiction of Spanish colonialism in North Africa, and unconditionally recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands.