Congratulatons to Secretary of State Antony Blinken as recipient of the French Legion of Honor award

 Secretary of State Antony Blinken to receive France's top honour in final diplomatic mission:  Published in France International

Antony John Blinken is an American lawyer and diplomat the 71st United States secretary of state. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under President Barack Obama.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Paris to receive France's highest honour during what is likely to be his final diplomatic mission.

President Emmanuel Macron will award Blinken the Legion of Honour – a particularly meaningful decoration for the fluent French speaker who spent part of his childhood in the French capital.

The honour marks a dramatic improvement in French-American relations since 2021, when Paris was angered by a US-led defence pact with Britain and Australia that cancelled a major French submarine contract.

Improved ties have seen both countries working closely on global challenges including Ukraine and the Middle East.

Before his departure from Washington, Blinken told reporters: "France has been an indispensable partner in advancing our shared values and priorities."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will meet Blinken to discuss Syria, where extremist forces toppled Bashar al-Assad's regime last month.

Barrot visited Damascus last week with his German counterpart as Western nations cautiously engage with Syria's new leadership.

"I will work until my final hours in the job for a ceasefire in Gaza," Blinken told AFP, as American and Qatari mediators step up indirect talks between Israel and Hamas.

President Joe Biden is Ukraine's hero

Echo opinion by Bret Stephens published in The New York Times.

On Ukraine, Biden Outshines Macron, Scholz — and DeSantis

To President Emmanuel Macron of France, a suggestion:

Vladimir Putin intends to eliminate Ukraine

If, as a report in The Wall Street Journal suggests, you are convinced the war in Ukraine is destined for a bloody stalemate, and would like to encourage Ukraine to enter “peace talks” with Moscow that would leave Russia in possession of large tracts of conquered territory, why not lead by example? 

Publicly suggest the return of Alsace to Germany ❗as evidence that you, too, believe that territorial sovereignty should be negotiable.

To Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, another suggestion:

If you’re going to dangle the prospect of closer ties between Ukraine and NATO (but not full membership) as a way of pushing Kyiv into a diplomatic settlement with Moscow, why not invite several battalions of Russian armor to the vicinity of Berlin? That would demonstrate that you, too, are willing to adjust the verdict of 1991 to mollify the Kremlin’s resentment, greed and paranoia.

These are preposterous suggestions. That’s the point. 

Those who now argue that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine needs to be “realistic” or “pragmatic” (❓)— 

(HELLO?  What about Vladimir Putin's distorted reality?)

)

that is, that he should stop short of pursuing a complete Russian withdrawal from all occupied Ukrainian territories — are proposing a solution they would never countenance for their own countries under ordinary circumstances, let alone during a struggle for national survival.

That’s why, as the war in Ukraine enters its second year, I feel grateful for Joe Biden. 

Fault him all you want on many issues, particularly his gradualist approach to arming Ukraine, but on the most consequential question of our time he has the big thing right. “Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased,” he said last week in Warsaw. “They must be opposed.”

That’s not a voice of fusty morality. It’s one of experience, foresight, military realism and political prudence.

Experience, because the world has come to know Vladimir Putin very well over his 23 years in power. We know he does not honor the terms of any agreements to which Russia is bound, from the Cold War-era I.N.F. Treaty to the more recent Minsk agreements. We know that he has launched unprovoked invasions in the past and will, if not checked, launch them again in the future.

Foresight, because a negotiated settlement would create more problems than it would solve. Iran would see that nuclear blackmail works. China would draw the lesson that, if there are limits to what America and our allies are prepared to do for Ukraine (which fights for itself and shares a land border with NATO), there will be much sharper limits to what we are prepared to do for Taiwan. 

Russia would conclude that, fumbled though its invasion was, it nonetheless gained territory, froze the conflict in place, and could still have another go at Ukraine in a few years.

Military realism, because the lesson of the first year of war is that Moscow can be defeated. The Russian Army was beaten in the battle for Kyiv, the counteroffensive near Kharkiv, and the fight for Kherson. The Ukrainians did all this, without the benefit of Western tanks, Predator drones or fighter jets. Imagine how swiftly they could win if they had all three in adequate quantities.

As for prudence, musing openly about the need for eventual negotiations harms Ukraine’s solidarity and morale, both key factors for its survival and success. An overwhelming majority of Ukrainians want to retake all the territory seized by Russia, including Crimea. How is it pragmatic or realistic to demand that Zelensky ignore the wishes of his own people, forsake their sacrifices, and abandon the Ukrainians still living under Russian occupation?

Calls for negotiation also undermine public support for Ukraine in the United States. When it comes to foreign policy, Americans will sooner pay heavily for great causes and high principles than they will for smaller causes and realpolitik. To arm and finance Kyiv in its fight for freedom and independence against an evil tyrant is a great cause. To arm and finance it for the sake of a shaky cease-fire is a small one.

That political fact should weigh on the minds of Biden’s foreign policy team. Public support for Ukraine is eroding, particularly among Republicans, and conservatives who know better, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, are shamefully hedging their bets.

President Biden likes to say that the United States will support Ukraine for as long as it takes. But that promise could expire on January 20, 2025, if he doesn’t win a second term. He owes it to his own legacy not to hazard what is potentially the most historic accomplishment of his presidency on next year’s race.

That’s why it makes no sense for the administration to slow-roll arms deliveries to Ukraine or drop heavy hints that Ukraine is unlikely ever to retake Crimea. Biden’s goal for 2023, should be clear and direct: victory for Ukraine. He can accomplish it through the rapid delivery of game-changing military equipment combined with a diplomatic offensive in which we propose Ukrainian membership in NATO if Russia doesn’t withdraw. Maybe that could even give Putin his off-ramp for surrender.

After a year of war, I’m more confident than ever that Biden will make the right choice. That’s more than can be said for Macron, Scholz and the other pale shadows of what passes for statesmanship in the free world.

Donald Trump - geography confusion: stress symptom or ignorance?

Reported in Le Monde and Newsweek

Regardless of why Donald Trump made this geographical error (and let's not rule out the possibility that, for some reason, it could have even been intentional!).....the facts continue adding up to support what The Resistance has said. That is, since becoming president, Trump is incompetent to lead.

Madness of Donald Trump graphic published in Rolling Stone

Published in Newsweek: Trump confused the Baltics with the Balkans and accused confused leaders of starting the Yugoslav Wars by Tom Porter.

Donald Trump confused the Baltic states in Europe with the Balkans—and chastised leaders of the former for starting wars in the 1990s that lead to the break-up of Yugoslavia, French daily Le Monde reported.

Trump reportedly made the mistake in a White House meeting with Dalia Grybauskaitė of Lithuania, Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia and Raimonds Vējonis of Latvia in April.

The leaders were reportedly confused by the president’s accusation, and it took them a minute to realize he had confused the Balkans and the Baltics.

The Baltic states lie in northern Europe, on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.

Around 1,000 miles away sits the Balkan region in south-eastern Europe. It comprises states including Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.

Much of the region was incorporated into the state of Yugoslavia, which became a socialist state after German occupying forces were ousted following World War II.

In the 1990s, Yugoslavia disintegrated and the region was torn apart in a series of civil wars, culminating with the Kosovo war of 1998-1999.

Trump’s mistake is perhaps more surprising given that his wife, Melania, was born in Slovenia, a state that was part of Yugoslavia until 1991.


Trump, according to the Le Monde report, remained “apparently uneducated in the matter by his wife, Melania, originally from the former Yugoslavia”.

The report comes with new tensions emerging this weekend between Trump and the U.S.'s traditional European allies. Donald Trump was in Europe during the November 9th weekend for events marking the centenary of the end of the First World War.

On Friday, Trump attacked French President Emmanuel Macron on Twitter, after the French leader said that Europe needed to take more responsibility for its own security.

The president faced widespread criticism Saturday for canceling a visit to Belleau, where 2,000 U.S. Marines were killed in combat in 1918, because it was raining.

In a speech in Paris on Sunday, Macron criticized nationalism—with self-declared nationalist Trump sitting only meters away.

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” said Macron, at the Armistice Day commemoration under the Arc de Triomphe.

“By pursuing our own interests first, with no regard to others’, we erase the very thing that a nation holds most precious, that which gives it life and makes it great: its moral values.”

*This article was corrected on Sunday to state that Yugoslavia became a socialist state after World War II.

MaineWriter postscript: It's evident on a daily basis that the White House is dysfunctional and Donald Trump's behavior becomes more dangerously unpredictable by the hour. When will Republicans take control of him?

Donald Trump- failed trip to France: Embarrassing

Trump is largely alone as world leaders take aim at nationalism French Emmanuel Macron and German Angela Merkel

The difference 100 years makes

By Darlene Superville and Jill Colvin, Associated Press published in The Gazette a Colorado newspaper.

PARIS (AP) — For Donald Trump in Paris, America First meant largely America alone.

At a weekend commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the president who proudly declares himself a "nationalist" stood apart, even on a continent where his brand of populism is on the rise.

He began his visit with a tweet slamming the French President Emmanuel Macron's call for a European defense force, arrived at events alone and spent much of his trip out of sight in the American ambassadors' residence in central Paris. 

On Sunday, he listened as he was lectured on the dangers of nationalist isolation, and then he headed home just as the inaugural Paris Peace Summit was getting underway.

The visit made clear that, nearly two years after taking office, Trump has dramatically upended decades of American foreign policy posture, shaking allies. That includes French President Emmanuel Macron, who on Sunday warned that the "ancient demons" that caused World War I and millions of deaths were once again making headway.

Macron, who has been urging a re-embrace of multinational organizations and cooperation that have been shunned by Trump, delivered a barely veiled rebuke of Trumpism at the weekend's centerpiece event: A gathering of dozens of leaders at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the base of the Arc de Triomphe to mark the passage of a century since the guns fell silent in a global war that killed millions. Bells tolled across Europe's Western Front and fighter jets passed overhead to mark the exact moment the devastating war came to a close.

With Trump and other leaders looking on, Macron took on the rising tide of populism in the United States and Europe and urged leaders not to turn their backs by turning inward.

"Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism," Macron said, adding that, when nations put their interests first and decide "who cares about the others" they "erase the most precious thing a nation can have ... its moral values."

After Trump was gone, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who recently announced that she will not be seeking re-election, made an impassioned plea for global cooperation at the peace forum, saying World War I had "made clear what disastrous consequences a lack of compromise in politics and diplomacy can have."

Trump, who has made clear that he has limited patience for broad, multilateral agreements, sat mostly stone-faced as he listened to Macron, who sees himself as Europe's foil to the rising nationalist sentiment, which has taken hold in Hungary and Poland among other countries.

Trump did engage with his fellow leaders, attending a group welcome dinner hosted by Macron at the Musée d'Orsay on Saturday night and a lunch on Sunday. He also spent time with Macron on Saturday, when the two stressed their shared desire for more burden-sharing during a quick availability with reporters.

But Trump was terse during some of his private conversations with world leaders, according to people with direct knowledge of his visit. One of the people described the president as "grumpy." They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.

The symbolism during Trump's visit couldn't have been more stark.

Trump was missing from one of the weekend's most powerful images: A line of world leaders, walking shoulder to-shoulder in a somber, rain-soaked procession as the bells marking the exact moment that fighting ended — 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918 — finished tolling.

The president and first lady Melania Trump had traveled to the commemoration separately — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited security protocols — from the other dignitaries, who had traveled together by bus from the Élysée Palace.

As Trump's motorcade was making its solo trip down the grand Champs-Élysées, which was closed to traffic, at least one topless woman breached tight security, running into the street and shouting "fake peace maker" as the cars passed. She had slogans, including the words "Fake" and "Peace," written on her chest.

Police tackled the woman and the motorcade continued uninterrupted. The feminist activist group Femen later claimed responsibility.

Also traveling on his own was Russian President Vladimir Putin, who shook Trump's hand, flashed him a thumbs-up sign and patted Trump's arm as he arrived. Trump responded with a wide smile. (Ugh....."Elvis sighting by tRump.)

National security adviser John Bolton had said at one point that Putin and Trump would meet in Paris, but they will instead hold a formal sit-down later this month at a world leaders' summit in Buenos Aires. A Kremlin official said later that U.S. and Russian officials decided to drop plans for the Paris meeting after French officials objected.

Trump, who ran on an "America First" platform, has jarred European allies with his actions. He has slapped tariffs on the European Union, pulled the U.S. out of the landmark Paris Climate Accord and the Iran nuclear deal and suggested he might be willing to pull the U.S. out of NATO if member counties don't significantly boost their defense spending. Trump's eagerness to get along with the Russian leader — in spite of Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and numerous other aggressive moves in recent years — has alarmed those who view Russia as a growing threat.

Trump has also repeatedly branded himself a "nationalist," despite criticism from some that the term has negative connotations. At a news conference last week, Trump defended his use of the phrase. "You know what the word is? I love our country," he said, adding: "You have nationalists. You have globalists. I also love the world and I don't mind helping the world, but we have to straighten out our country first. We have a lot of problems."

But Trump did not broach the divide as he paid tribute Sunday to U.S. and allied soldiers killed in World War I during "a horrible, horrible war" that marked America's emergence as a world power.

"We are gathered together at this hallowed resting place to pay tribute to the brave Americans who gave their last breath in that mighty struggle," Trump said at the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in the suburbs of Paris, where more than 1,500 Americans who died in the war are buried.

"It is our duty to preserve the civilization they defended and to protect the peace they so nobly gave their lives to secure one century ago," he said after spending a moment, standing alone amid the cemetery's white crosses, holding a black umbrella.

The Veterans Day speech came a day after Trump was criticized for failing to visit a different American cemetery about 60 miles (100 kilometers) outside of Paris on Saturday because rain grounded the helicopter he had planned to take. A handful of senior administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, went in the president's place, while Trump remained behind at the ambassador's residence with no alternate schedule for hours.

Trump delivered the speech as other leaders were gathered for the Paris Peace Forum, which aims to revive collective governance and international cooperation to tackle global challenges. Afterward he flew back to Washington.

France was the epicenter of World War I, the first global conflict. Its role as host of the main international commemoration highlighted the point that the world mustn't stumble into war again, as it did so quickly and catastrophically with World War II.
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Associated Press writers Robert Burns and Julie Pace in Washington and Lori Hinnant and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
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For more information on World War I, go to The Associated Press' WWI hub: https://www.apnews.com/WorldWarI