I thoroughly enjoyed today’s article with the above-title in The Guardian: US diplomats, pretending to feel insulted in their dignity as loyal Trump servants, left a meeting in the UN because the rest of the world, and apparently the French too, are no longer convinced by the double talk and the double standards of the Trump regime.
Trump is driving the US into the wall while his crew and many passengers keep smiling blissfully! Do they realise that few countries still trust the US1, that they actually have few friends left2? Do they believe they can eventually survive surrounded with vassals but no friends? Remember the visit of Vance to Orban during the early 2026 Hungarian election? Vance’s visit was a factor in Orban’s massive ousting: Hungarians had had enough of their local apprentice dictator, but the fact that the apprentice was supported by Trump was clearly an added reason to vote him out. Along the same line: Romania just bought French helicopters and radars… as they apparently consider that a European provider is less risky that the US of moody Trump.
As a Belgian boy growing up in the post WWII period, I have always been a great fan of Tintin, the uncontested paragon and most typical product of Belgian comics3. One of the books, the Blue Lotus, recounts the adventures of Tintin in Japanese occupied China before WWII. I read it many times4, starting when I was a primary school pupil5. I now realise that there are many similarities between the current US and the pre-WWII Japan as described in the Blue lotus. The Chinese are the Good ones, and the Japanese are the Bad6. The Japanese organised their little and no so little political and military operations in China, and pretended to do so for the benefit of the Chinese and in response to their aggression!
This eventually led to a lot of international reprobation and pressure and to Japanese diplomats walking out of the League of Nations Society (LNS), the predecessor of the UN. The very image of the offended Japanese leaving the LNS has always impressed me. It immediately came to my mind when I saw the Guardian article!
Notes
- Ukraine seems to be one of them… but the country has few other options ↩︎
- My guess is that they don’t care much. ↩︎
- Belgians are really good at a couple of things: comics, chocolate, beer, cycling… ↩︎
- And still do so occasionally! ↩︎
- The cartoon was first published in black and white as a magazine supplement in 1934-1935. The final revised colour versions was released in 1946. ↩︎
- Largely due to Trump’s policy, China is now widely viewed as more friendly and reliable than the US. See People in Many Countries Now View China More Positively Than the U.S. ↩︎