Around 7000 Americans were killed on Iwo Jima and 19,000 wounded, and it was part of a campaign that ended with a nuclear weapon being used, so maybe not the wisest comparison.

I see a lot of descriptions here of the present situation as a potential “American Suez”. The current situation may well turn out to be a watershed. But while Suez marked the passing of the baton from one hegemon to another, the systemic level remained stable - which looks increasingly unlikely.

We have seen very clearly what happens if you spend a few years steadily implying that far right parties have actually got moderate and are quite respectable now and are just bold thinkers telling it like it is. It does not end well. For god’s sake let’s not do the exact same thing again!

Whatever the results, please bear in mind that the FvD is not a normal party which can be discussed in the same way the VVD or CDA are. They are conspiracy theorists, racists, violent criminals, allied with groups which security services say are a threat, *literal* neo-Nazis. Not radical but insane.

Interessant verhaal @ajboekestijn.bsky.social. Zou ook graag weten wat Rob de Wijk hiervan vindt. @hugoreitsma.bsky.social?

I know I've said this a trillion times but I have to say it periodically to keep from going insane: The right ran a huge, well-funded, & ultimately successful campaign to completely take over political media & the infosphere more generally. This is by far the most important political development...

Ophef? Er is veel te weinig ophef nu een partij die het nazistisch gedachtengoed aanhangt meedoet aan de lokale verkiezingen.

Is some kind of ripple effect turning this into a genuine world war? I know these two were fighting before, but it seems that the Iran-Israel-US war allows them to step up the killing. Afghan Officials Say Hundreds Dead in Pakistani Airstrike on Kabul www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/w...

This kind of little gems is what makes being here worth my while.

While Jared Kushner is negotiating on behalf of the United States with governments in the Middle East, he is also soliciting investments in his private business ventures from the same governments www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/b...

The is the federal government telling news stations to provide favorable coverage of the war or their licenses will be pulled. A truly extraordinary moment. We aren't on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. Act like it.

The Orban version of a free press. Government is not trying to whitewash it anymore. Why can he say this out loud? Nobody cares? Everyone is afraid to call it out? Pete Hegseth Says ‘the Sooner David Ellison’ Buys CNN, ‘the Better’ www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/b...

The only risk in playing Russian Roulette is that you pull the trigger when a bullet's in the chamber. Otherwise it's perfectly safe.

The other, an official involved in wider European relations but not directly with security expressed it very well: "Fûcking around with bits of this and bits of that it pointless. The UK needs to just get off the horse and rejoin. Do what's necessary. It's pointless anything else." Sharp 4

Fairly confident that the military solution to the Strait of Hormuz situation is for SecDef to produce some more videos of himself working out.

"The War in Iran was started by WOKES!" Colin from Portsmouth says that the war is a ruse by carbon neutral lobbyists to put up the price of oil so we all start investing in green energy.

President zijn is een financieel buitenkansje.

A grim parallel between US escalating a trade war w/ China & realising that China has serious leverage in the form of rare earths & US launching a war vs Iran & realising Iran has serious leverage in the form of being able to blow up the world economy. Failure of statecraft.

Dit is heel ernstig. En eigenlijk wisten we dit wel, maar nooit zo kernachtig onder woorden gebracht. Taak voor de journalistiek om politici continu te blijven fact checken. Voorbeeld: gisteren op de radio een discussie over voorrang statushouders op de woningmarkt. Presentator was onzichtbaar.

De Telegraaf, the Netherlands’ largest newspaper, recently published an interview with a woman promoting €1,600 seats on private evacuation flights from Dubai. Bellingcat found that her image was likely AI-generated, and flight data suggests no such plane took off. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03...

Enorme canard van De Telegraaf:

Goede stap richting een gemeenschappelijke kapitaalmarkt. En deze is weer nodig voor Europese souvereiniteit op het gebied van technologie, defensie en voedsel.

As with many crises, fighting rarely solves them. Even for dominating powers - really, dominance is as much a trap as a benefit. The answers are in political choices. And the value of being a superpower is the ability to compromise your way to even more power. But these folks don't get it.

This is an extremely important new paper by @armida.bsky.social 🚨 Defense can not be an elite project! Creating broad and deep public support is essential… not just to justify spending but also to create a better pool for military personnel and a convincing reason for compulsory military service.

Kort gezegd: als je fossil fuels echt wilt vervangen zijn er geen woorden nodig, maar daden. Ik denk dat @volts.wtf gelijk heeft.

Goh…

If true that Trump is signalling an end in sight, then what we’ve learned from this fiasco is that the Iranian regime does not collapse even under intense pressure & the rest of the world can’t endure closure of the straits of Hormuz for very long at all www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

Ze zeggen vaak (terecht): ‘Ouders, voed uw zonen op!’ Maar ik zou hierbij een dringend beroep willen doen op de vrouwen (…) en dochters van Wierd Duk: Laat die ‘man’ bij jullie in huis eens iets minder SBS6 kijken. Zijn wereldbeeld is nogal eenzijdig, homofoob en eerlijk gezegd een beetje sneu.

Dit dus…

I have just held a call with President Pedro Sánchez to express the EU’s full solidarity with Spain. The EU will always ensure that the interests of its Member States are fully protected.

🧵Feels like shouting into the void, but it is essential to note that the Trump/Rubio gutting of the State Department and blowtorching of US diplomatic capacity and credibility is an accelerant to this spiraling war and will seriously undercut US/allied efforts to pick up the pieces after. 1/

I remember when ‘Brexit Means Brexit’ became a way for silly people to insist that they supported something they could neither justify nor explain. Obviously the context is very different, but something similar is already happening with the ‘war’ in Iran. And it’s mostly the same people doing it.

On the one hand, a clearly deranged lunatic in the White House starting a dangerous illegal war on Iran with already-serious repercussions for the region and world... Or having a pop at Keir Starmer. You just knew which side the Right would come down on.

Former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO.

💥SCOOP: Putin tasked Sergei Kiriyenko to run a Moldova-style election meddling operation in Hungary for Orbán, sending three GRU-linked political technologists with diplomatic or service passports to operate from the Russian Embassy in Budapest. More in my newsletter: vsquare.org/goulash-krem...

Dit is zo interessant. Even luisteren. Zonder onmiddellijk te kunnen zeggen of de redenering van @georgemonbiot.bsky.social valide is (ik denk het wel) is het in ieder geval goed om eea in de juiste historische context te kunnen plaatsen.

Twee dingen: 1) ik ben een groot voorstander van de EU. Maar alsjeblieft, denk aan je geloofwaardigheid. Dit bevestigt zo onnodig het beeld van De Bureaucraten in Brussel. 2) Als je je laat leiden door een rijke lobbygroep (boeren en vleesverwerkende industrie), doe het dan wat subtieler. Genant.

BREAKING: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be replaced with GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin, President Trump says.

Als je de VS niet meer kan volgen; je bent niet de enige. De Financial Times heeft er ook moeite mee.

@eurdraaitdoor.bsky.social @janpostma.bsky.social Was de coup/invasie/kidnap in Venezuela alleen maar een van de voorbereidende stappen naar de oorlog met Iran? Toegang tot Venezolaanse olie zeker stellen omdat de kans groot zou zijn dat de levering vanuit midden-oosten stil zou vallen.

Ik denk wel dat het goed zou zijn als onze @minister-president.bsky.social het Franse voorbeeld volgde

famously low on geopolitics, the middle east

@gylesnamopaleen.bsky.social is not pulling any punches. Don’t understand Starmer’s reluctance to make some big strides towards EU.

"A stable, law-abiding Iran will help build a stable, law-abiding Middle East. But in order to achieve that, Iran needs not a new dictatorship but self-determination and a pluralist government that respects basic rights. Right now, the Trump administration is not trying to build one."

Remember when America attacked Afghanistan to get rid of the Taliban and then reintroduced opium production and gave everyone PTSD and then just put the Taliban back in charge after 2 decades?

Electing Trump the first time could have been seen as an aberration, a quirk of US politics that would not be repeated. But electing him a second time sent a clear signal to the rest of the world that it is imperative to reduce military and economic dependence on the US because it is unstable.