ND

France says they want to play a leadership role in the Middle East. Let them start in their former (Christian-majority) colony/mandate of Lebanon. France should disarm Hezbollah. Beirut was the Paris of the Middle East until Jordan threw out the radical, violent PLO, which took over southern Lebanon in the 1970s. It was called Black September and it led to a 20-year civil war between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon. The Muslims largely won. Then came Iran and southern Lebanon and much of Beirut became home to Iran’s proxy militia, Hezbollah. If France wants to be useful, Macron should send in his military to help the Lebanese Army disarm Hezbollah, as required by UN resolution 1701. Why should Israel have to disarm Hezbollah? France wants to play a leading role. France claims it has a strong military. This is their chance to do something other than issue a communique. Let France lead the fight. Help Lebanon and get rid of Hezbollah. (The sad truth is France is too weak to do it, no one trusts them, and they’d rather issue statements than do anything concrete.)

I don’t know if people are playing dumb, genuinely don’t understand what’s happening, or are simply blinded by their feelings about Trump, but a lot of the social media commentary right now is absurd and exhausting. What’s going on is essentially a high-stakes game of chicken between the Trump administration and the remaining leaders of the Islamic Republic over what the end of the current fight looks like. Both sides have clear objectives (see below). The Islamic Republic believes (or believed) it could use economic pressure, information warfare, and domestic political pressure to force Trump to back down and avoid giving America what it wants. China and Russia are covertly assisting in this effort because the collapse of the regime would severely weaken their influence in the region, and because they are always eager to undermine American power. The regime has also found willing domestic allies in this campaign, including many on the left and certain podcast hosts who are committed to opposing what they — like many Marxist college professors — view as the American empire. On the other hand, Trump and his administration are using military pressure to force the regime’s leaders to concede. They are essentially presenting the regime with a choice: surrender on these specific demands, or we will continue escalating pressure and removing regime leaders until we find someone who will. I think the Islamic Republic has underestimated how committed Trump is to achieving these goals. He views them, not without reason, as central to his potential legacy. A Middle East without the constant threat of well-armed and well-funded Iranian terror proxies would be a genuine game-changer. This perspective is shaped not only by his own beliefs but also by the strong encouragement of key regional allies who see Tehran as the central threat — and not just Israel, but most of the Gulf states as well. Everything else you’re seeing right now is simply the two sides trying to gain leverage and apply greater pressure on each other. Regarding Trump’s absurd postings specifically, Trump has always been viewed on the world stage as unpredictable and somewhat crazy. He leans into this image. He believes that acting like a bully and openly flexing American power is central to his negotiating and pressure strategy to get what he wants. I have been very critical of Trump for using this style against allies (for example, threatening to take Greenland, or arbitrarily raising tariffs), because it often alienates them unnecessarily and can be counterproductive. (I’m setting aside for now the fact that some of those same allies have proven very unreliable lately.) However, this approach works much more effectively against rogue regimes and enemies. They genuinely believe he is crazy enough to follow through on threats that other leaders would never make. He has proven this with things like the Mauduro raid. That perception gives him a real edge in a game of chicken like the one playing out now. His over-the-top posts actually make it more likely that regime officials will look for an off-ramp with concessions, not less likely. So while you might dislike his style or find the threats inappropriate, the only questions that truly matter are whether he is prepared to follow through (probably not) and whether these threats help achieve a successful outcome. This isn't a podcast debate. It's a war. And now that Trump has committed to it, he rightly wants to win it. Anyone telling you that isn't feasible and he should just give in without achieving America's objectives is intentionally deceiving you, and you might want to ask yourself why...

I repeat: The U.S. sent thousands of its 19 years old soldiers to die in Normandy, to free Europe and to end the biggest crime against humanity ever commited - by Europeans. It was just 81 years ago. The whole reason, France, Benelux etc. 🇫🇷 exist today is because of this heroism. My grandparents could grow up in a liberal democracy. Without the U.S. they would be raised at the H*tler Youth. We Europeans would still be in wars again and again, like 1914, 1866, 1870, 1795 etc. They brought peace, democracy, liberty and human rights. They invested billions of U.S. Dollars into Europe with the Marshall Fund. They gave us more than we ever had in our history before. They protected us for 7 decades with hundreds of thousands of soldiers against the cruelties of the Soviet Union. The terror we can see nowadays in Donetsk, would have happened in Bavaria, Bourgogne or the Netherlands in 1950 if there wasn’t the U.S. 🇺🇸 Who do we Europeans think we are to let that nation down, act like bad allies, calling their President names every day on television - and have full confidence we stand better alone. All of instagram is just about, why we’re better than the U.S. We owe them so much. We Europeans are most arrogant species on earth. And to cure this we have to face the truth.

If the amount of our own stuff we are willing to sacrifice to get one of our own back shocks you… Just wait until you see how much of your stuff we are willing to sacrifice to get him back

@Arrogance_0024 Our greatest military success of all time was successfully landing at Normandy to save your butts from the Nazis. But do go on.

Lose all this to rescue 1 pilot and call it your greatest military success of all time.

@robrousseau @EWErickson Glenn Powell in the lead, please! And maybe John Cena issuing suppressive fire. 🔥

John Krasinsky and Chris Pratt are handed two ends of a broken pool cue at CIA headquarters, whoever emerges alive gets to play the lead in the already-in-production Iran War downed pilot rescue movie

WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND! 🇺🇸🇺🇸

You don’t get it. We will lose a dozen aircraft to save one pilot. We will blackbag your dictator in the dead of night. We will even beat you at your national sport, just for fun. The sooner you stop trying to understand the U.S. from a euro mindset, the sooner we can speak seriously.

Sorry Jonah. I actually sat in the room for the first half of the movie. For 24 polite years, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama diplomatically asked NATO members to increase defense spending. For 24 years, it was one excuse after another, all focused in Western Europe on how they wish they could spend more, but their social welfare spending priorities wouldn’t let them. In other words, you the US will spend on defense and protect us. Along comes rude Donald Trump. Finally, someone made clear that if Europe kept freeloading the US was done. It took a bill in the China shop to move Europe. Diplomacy failed. Trump prevailed. That’s reality whether you or I like it. NATO self-withered after 75 years. If Spain, England, Italy and France won’t spend what’s necessary to have a real military, it’s time for something new.

This is a beautiful screw-up because it implicates many people within the NYT. Each story goes through multiple editors, yet not one caught this before publishing. The people who write the news literally know nothing. Stop putting your trust in them

When this is over, the western part of NATO will never be the same. Spain, England, France and Italy have sold us out, as they too often have a history of doing. Eastern European nations are the heart of NATO. They spend money on defense, know how to fight and love the US. France particularly deserves fault and blame. From supporting China and Russia at the UN to denying Americans overflight rights, they’re doing what they’ve always done - showing weakness, while cutting deals with terrorists. (The reason the US has a Marine Corps and Navy is unlike France, we refused to pay a ransom to the Barbary Pirates. France is always happy to cut a deal.) Wars have unintended consequences as nations show their true colors. NATO will never be the same, and Western European weakness and acquiescence is the cause.

@hirokatz 😂

自動翻訳で言語の壁が無くなった今、我々日本語話者は他国の文化に敬意をもって接するべきだ。 たとえばイギリス料理。 今まではイギリス料理はあまりおいしくないというジョークを楽しんでいたが、これからはやめたほうがよい。 実際、イギリスの料理はおいしい。 ロンドンで食べたカレーも炒麺もケバブも最高だった。

@nickwakenc @AiPinfu2003 I think he was 3 in that photo

@EnzoND72 @AiPinfu2003 Looks young. Age?

日本人を喜ばしたければデカイ肉の画像だけじゃなくて、デカイ犬の画像を見せるだけでいい。 日本人は日本の狭い部屋で飼えないデカイ犬に死ぬほど憧れている。 いいか？デカイ犬だ。

@PeterSweden7 Hi! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Tydligen ser det ut som att X nu visar poster på Svenska till Engelsktalande användare. Stämmer det, svara gärna på Engelska om du ser detta😁

@elonmusk What. Is. Happeniiiing

Yup 😂

@redsteeze Johnny Carson

Do you know who never had to worry about things like PR clean up during their late night show monologues? Craig Ferguson, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien.

@TheCensoredRock 💯

Coworker: OMG did you see the Oscars last night? Me: get the fuck away from me

@lelemSLP @orlipeter In other words, New York’s “First Lady” is a fucking psychopath.

"Some were suicidal. Others could barely speak" Dr. Orli Peter @orlipeter, psychologist who is helping Nova survivors, in an open letter to Mamdani's wife: "Dear Ms. Rama Duwaji, You publicly liked social media posts describing the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas as “collective liberation.” You also placed a heart next to an Instagram post claiming that the reports of mass rapes on Oct. 7 were a “hoax.” For the past two and a half years, I have been treating survivors of October 7, helping them slowly rebuild shattered lives and broken nervous systems. Some were suicidal. Others could barely speak. Some of the people sitting across from me in therapy had witnessed rapes and executions so brutal that their nervous systems simply shut down. Words stopped working. These people did not simply survive war. They survived mass and socially sanctioned sadism. Subsequent investigations by journalists, forensic teams and international bodies documented widespread sexual violence that day. Families were burned alive. Festival goers hunted down, raped and then executed. Hamas terrorists documented much of the violence themselves: one attacker used a victim’s phone to call his parents and brag that he had killed 10 Jews with his own hands; and you surely saw the footage of Shani Louk, whose body Hamas fighters paraded through Gaza in the back of a truck while crowds spat and celebrated. Survivors of the Nova festival have also described militants laughing as they hunted festivalgoers hiding in the fields. These were not acts carried out in secrecy. They were recorded, boasted about and, in some cases, carried out with visible pleasure. These were not only acts of murder. They were staged performances of cruelty. This was not violence used as a means to an end. It was violence relished for its own sake. That is the socially sanctioned mass sadism my patients are still haunted by, superimposed on everything they see. Once that sadism becomes undeniable, the narrative has a problem. Mass murder can still be reframed as resistance. Rape cannot. It exposes the cruelty too clearly, so it has to be denied. That denial carries consequences not only for the survivors I treat but for Palestinians as well. Refusing to confront the mass sadism of Oct. 7 keeps Palestinians trapped under the same violent movement that terrorizes them. Hamas has long brutalized its own population. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented torture, arbitrary detention, and killings of Palestinians accused of dissent or collaboration, and journalists have reported Hamas beating and arresting Gazans who protest its rule. This is what authoritarian movements do. Cruelty outward. Repression inward. As New York City’s first lady, you are in a public position to inspire a movement for Palestinian rights and safety. The survivors I treat are still trying to rebuild their lives after what they witnessed. Palestinians deserve to be free from the same sadistic movement that terrorizes them as well. Public gestures matter. When someone in a position of influence treats atrocity as liberation, the signal travels far beyond a social media post. The evidence is clear. Admit that you were wrong and withdraw your support for the lie. Some of us spend our days helping survivors rebuild the lives that Hamas shattered. The least the rest of the world can do is stop sanitizing mass sadism and tell the truth about what was done to the victims of Hamas’ cruelty. ".