> Also, the strait has been open to Spanish tankers since two weeks ago.

But no Spanish tankers have gone through so that doesn't seem to be accurate. An Iranian diplomat saying that publicly doesn't matter when the irgc continues to shoot them. The only known European aligned tanker to have gone through is this French one we are reading about here.

While there are reports that Iran has been charging a toll on some ships from "hostile" countries, there is no such report suggesting that the French, Japanese and Omani ships cited in this news report did so too.

In this particular case, it is a diplomatic and reciprocal gesture of goodwill from Iran - the French have publicly said that joint military operations to open the Strait is a bad a idea and diplomatic options need to be pursued for the same while the Japanese have confirmed that they won't be sending any minesweepers to the Strait (Japan Isn’t Sending Minesweepers to Middle East, Takaichi Says - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-12/japan-isn... ). Oman, of course, has been the mediator in the early US-Iran negotiations, and has publicly said Iran cannot be blamed for the US-Israel attacks ('This war is not of their making,' Omani foreign minister says of Iran - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-not-their-making-oman... ) as it had accepted a new nuclear deal with the Trump administration during the negotiations (Peace ‘within reach’ as Iran agrees no nuclear material stockpile: Oman FM - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/28/peace-within-reach-... ). He has blamed the Trump administration for undermining negotiations and implied that they acted in bad faith.

This is just a culmination of the last two years of tension. The most recent friction is around Lebanon where France sees itself as the protector of its former colony.

Interesting take from Le Monde: "Israel turns its back on France as Paris struggles to maintain dialogue"

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/04/01/i...

If that was true many more tankers would have passed from other countries that were more against the war.

France is one of few countries with large military presence in the area, that is the only thing they do more than most other countries.

Edit: And France even directly threatened to use force here. If you only read American news you wouldn't know since they want it to seem like the world is on Irans side here. What we are seeing is that Iran has started buckling to these threats, not that they are giving passage to those who didn't threaten.

> France is advising Bahrain on a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that would authorize the use of force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore global energy flows, according to three diplomats informed of the process.

https://www.politico.eu/article/france-advising-bahrain-un-s...

France also joined China and Russia in blocking Bahreini resolution that would authorise "all defensive means necessary" to protect commercial shipping in the strait. That is why their tanker passed.

France also has a problem with Israel waging war in Lebanon, a former French administered teritory. As long as Israel sticks to eliminating Hezbollah only, they'll shut up about it, but anything beyond that, like that bridge bombing or displacing and killing civilians it's bound to have a negative reaction from France.

The most an average person in the west knows about Takaichi is that she "said" Japan would go to war with China for Taiwan. That's of course not true, but the person you're replying to also thinks Spain is on Iran's side. They are clearly misinformed or lying to fit their narrative.

Why would she promise anything to Trump? She just wants Iran to let them through, USA isn't blocking anyone here, USA isn't a part of that conversation.

why are you adding japanese honorifics when the rest of your post is in english?

This. There are really two explanations here. Either the US hasn't been a democracy in the first place. Or the majority of the US voters prefer autocratic amoral psychopaths running their country.

Your point seems to be that the US has not changed. Regardless, the world thinks it has.

The “coalition of the willing” is not behind the US this time.

Back then we had approval from our coalition. We also shared the spoils, which the Russians noted.

Also, none of the Bush’s ran on an “America First” isolationist political campaign. Even own base is fracturing because of this.

Information, both good and bad, is a lot more accessible this time around. It has been a dramatic accelerator to worldly views of America in the wake of their recent actions.

There are political similarities between the two aforementioned wars, but the social and technological backdrops are quite different, and they're working against US public perception. Furthermore, decorum is entirely gone this time around, which isn't helping.

Whole world would weep with joy if somebody like Bush jr would come into power now. Even when talking about that cocaine nepo kid of his cia chief father. I recall those times and emotions well from european perspective, not everybody here is 20-something.

These 2 are incomparable on any level. If you want to say it can always get worse that I can agree with.

and we're still experiencing damage from that war, and it's getting worse because of some things that it changed (patriot act, creation of homeland security, etc)

we've faced two major recessions since then and may very well be entering our third

at this point it seems we're just trying to find out where the breaking point is

If the doesn't turn up as the first US president to actually be impeached. You've got other two who got assasinated. The right to bear arms mskes that sort of thing a bit easier than impeachment.

Checks and balances mean nothing when the same party controls house, senate, president, and supreme court.

What “checks and balances”?

The SCOTUS ruled that presidents cannot be held accountable.

The constitution is pretty clear. Trump does not have the authority to invade Iran. Yet he did. What are you planning to patch?

Despite everything, Trump has 35-40 percent approval right now. You cannot patch that out.

Agreed, but the problem is that whichever party is in power wants to expand presidential authority, and only the minority party wants to reign it in. When the president flips, usually so do the parties in power. Plus you have to be enough majority to override a presidential veto. I don't see this ever workign out :-(

I don’t think he’s incompetent. He’s actually quite good at extracting wealth for himself/family/donors/friends out of whatever the administration is doing.

Iran is a distraction from the Epstein files, and the fact that many from the Trump circle appear in it - Trump himself, some of his children, Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Peter Thiel, etc.

The war with Iran is also a way to make a few more suspicious trades on the market swings, especially the ones following each speech or decision. It would be easy to time trades if you know what will happen because you’re deciding it.

The US may be destroyed but it’s because it’s just collateral damage to the billionaires and Epstein class. Not because they’re incompetent. We need to contain their wealth and power with totally new laws.

My strong suspicion is that the current POTUS will leave the White House in a box. My hope is that this precedes the next election cycle.

> They would rather suffer and destroy America just so the democrats don’t win.

This is true.

Which raises the question: could Democrats use this reality (whatever they touch is poisoned, in eyes of the other side) to steer the result a bit?

I think a large part of why they do this and vote the way they do is because of comments like yours. Hacker news, Reddit, award shows, movies, universities, etc all have a constant drum beat of disdain and hate towards them. I think this motivates them into voting even if the vote is against their own interest.

It may even be Trump again! Wouldn't be surprised if we see some movement towards removing presidential term limits. They weren't always in place and they can be removed again.

why is it that democrats always assume they are the correct side and that everyone else agrees with them?

Honest? Trump is the most dishonest president in history. He literally says two diametrically opposite things: - we don’t need any oil - open up the strait or else severe consequences Which is it? Only fools think his opacity is a feature not a terrible bug.

Interesting question. Do you believe that waiting is fine because the election will be fair in November?

The sooner regime change comes in the US, the better.

Go back to Reddit where you belong

Yep, but the biggest customer and JV partner for both the French and Israeli MIC (India) ensures that they cooperate, as India has forced both to create JVs owned and operated by Indian SOEs and transfer IP and manufacturing capacity as a result.

And French companies are fine with that - as can be seen by Thales [0], Safran [1] and Rafael (IL) [2] working on Indian JVs for India's Rafale [3] and Tejas [1] requirements.

It's cheap for French politicans to make pronouncements (and given how competitive the 2027 election is going to be, Macron has no choice but to resort to such populism), but France Inc ignores it and carries on because business is more important.

It's the same reason why Dassault bluntly rejected German input on SCAF [4] and why France's Safran and Russia's UAC are working with India's HAL to indigenize the SJ-100 [5]. And now that the UAE has pulled out of Dassault's F5 program [6], they are even more dependent on India.

As I've mentioned before on HN, French and American business culture are very similar.

Even Vietnam is starting to turn the screws on France, especially now that En Marche's Stephanié Do has now become a lobbyist [7] for FPT's defense arm [8] which is partially owned by Vietnam's KGB (the MPS/BCA).

It's the same kind of arm-twisting China used in the 1980s-2000s and 1990s-2010s respectively to force Israel [9] and Russia [10][11] to transfer IP for China's J-XX program, except both India and Vietnam are applying such arm-twisting on France in addition to Israel and Russia.

And Macron and all the other centrists politicans cannot do anything against Dassault, Thales, etc lest they switch to supporting Bardella and RN like Bolloré [12] and Stérin [13] are doing. Macron himself is only in power because Arnault [14] and his son-in-law (and CEO of Scaleway) Xavier Niels [15].

[0] - https://www.asdnews.com/news/aerospace/2022/07/21/iai-select...

[1] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-25/india-to-...

[2] - https://gbp.com.sg/stories/rafael-eyes-ice-breaker-spike-lr2...

[3] - https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/dassaul...

[4] - https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/dassaul...

[5] - https://idrw.org/original-sam146-engine-likely-to-power-indi...

[6] - https://www.latribune.fr/article/defense-aerospatiale/defens...

[7] - https://www.tst-consulting.fr/

[8] - https://www.intelligenceonline.fr/asie-pacifique/2026/04/03/...

[9] - https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/12/world/israel-selling-chin...

[10] - https://thediplomat.com/2010/12/how-chinas-jets-threaten-rus...

[11] - https://asia.nikkei.com/politics/international-relations/rus...

[12] - https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-et-idees/dossier/la...

[13] - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/22/world/europe/pierre-eduoa...

[14] - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2023/08/07/how-be...

[15] - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2022/07/10/u...

That's a revenge for not letting him to play his character in Back to the Future.

Then you can get rich by betting against it, so most people seem to disagree with you. And in a democracy most people decide who the next leader will be.

https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics

I can assure you that no "center left" president will be fixing any problems in the middle east anytime soon

He does seem wildly corrupt though with extreme exceptions in bills for his friends and backers, more than other politicians I've seen. He is probably better than Trump or JD Vance but that isn't saying much.

I too mostly agree with his populist center takes, but that doesn't mean he is reasonable.

Germany got a new type of government. The 2/3 required in USA for significant change will be insurmountable short of a disaster on order of second Great Depression since plurality of American voters can’t see past next paycheck, no Democrat that can win Presidential primary has any kind of revolutionary vision, it’s all muted, even Bernie got squashed by centrist voters eventually and he was not even that far to the left IMHO - he even stayed away from race or gender issues.

Germany changed its constitution, banned its former ruling party, and actively explores and teaches their school kids about their crimes. The US on the other hand has a chunk of its electorate flying Confederate flags and voting for politicians who think US history textbooks should be more "pro-American".

Germany wasn't and isn't the world's hegemon.

I don't think that position is recoverable the same way.

Look at where Germany is now?

They're a total non-player on the world stage. They completely kowtow to the US. Hardly a good example

You also have to consider the outside intervention forcibly imposed upon Germany, after being defeated in war both times, and how the first round of that contributed directly to WWII. It's not exactly a playbook to copy verbatim.

Neither Biden nor Harris were sensible candidates. Democrats could have easily beat Trump by running a more appealing/less polarizing candidate. Didn't even have to be both. Obama was polarizing but he was appealing and he won comfortably.

None of that is new or imported from the Asiatic Hordes. It's just more visible now.

I don't think the electorate ran back into Trump's arms. Kamala was an egregiously poor candidate. He didn't win, she lost.