I don't think Commotion Wireless / Internet in a Suitcase was necessarily the "right" way to go, but I do think that states (like the US) ought to have been working on deployable active pro-Democracy pro-speech systems, that we could get to people in a hurry. We could have been building systems that help spread values of speech & perhaps democracy. Instead, we are dropping missiles and bombs that cost hundreds of thousands / millions, onto old F-4's and crappy drones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotion_Wireless
We should be able to actually help people. The weapons of war should be just one arrow in the quiver of the arsenal of democracy.