FLASH
Shkruar nga James Ball 
The American president has put himself in a position that makes him look weak and unstable. His failure to impose his will in the Middle East is being publicly exposed. Such a situation could make him more dangerous than ever…
The Anglo-Saxon king Canute is remembered for an episode that almost certainly never happened. He is said to have placed his throne by the sea and commanded the waves not to rise before him – only to get wet when they inevitably did.
The story has been told for centuries as an exemplary lesson in the limits of power, even for absolute rulers. This is a lesson that Donald Trump seems to have completely ignored.
The US president has long insisted that America's problems are easy to solve and that all it takes is the right person – himself – to be in power. He would lower prices, resolve the world's conflicts and make America great again.
His overconfidence has survived well beyond the first year of his second term, thanks to constant adulation from subordinates and a friendly online media ecosystem. He seems to sincerely believe that he has “ended 10 wars” or that he is breaking popularity records among Republicans.
Neither of these are true. It seems that it was this unbridled self-confidence that pushed Trump toward war with Iran. One of the founding principles of the MAGA movement was to extricate the US from endless interventions abroad and to establish “America First.”
But the desire to prove he was more capable than his predecessors in Iran and the Middle East – after a decade of criticizing Obama’s deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program – proved irresistible.
Buoyed by recent successes and after a flattering briefing from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that US airstrikes could bring about regime change in Iran, Trump embarked on his Middle East adventure.
He never set a clear objective for the war, much less built a convincing argument for the public or Congress. But it is impossible to present the current situation as a victory. The world economy remains on the brink of disaster, while the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked.
Peace negotiations are also at a standstill. The Iranian regime appears more consolidated than before the start of the US operations. Trump clearly wants an end to the conflict and has been promising for months that a peace deal is "close" or at most "two weeks away."
But it seems he is slowly learning that just saying it is not enough to make it happen. Iran wants a deal that allows it to maintain its dignity and recognize the advantage it has gained thanks to its de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, the US wants a deal that it can present as a victory. On the other hand, there is the third factor, Israel, with its own objectives and will, including attacks on Hezbollah, Iran's ally in Lebanon.
Neither Israel nor Iran seem willing to comply with Trump's desire to end the war quickly, simply because he is tired of it. Over the weekend, the two sides exchanged fire in an escalating manner, in open defiance of the US president's wishes.
On Sunday, Iran fired missiles at Israel for the first time in months. That in itself is a humiliation for Trump, given his claim that he had completely destroyed Iran's ability to carry out such attacks.
But the situation deteriorated further. Trump publicly stated that he had asked Israel not to retaliate and that he was talking to Netanyahu to fix this. However, Israel reacted anyway, striking Iranian oil infrastructure.
The US president made his wishes and demands clear in public, but they were ignored.
It’s clear that on some level, Trump knows this. He has rarely been a patient man, but his anger in recent days has been palpable, even by his standards.
He abruptly ended an NBC interview after it degenerated into a chaotic exchange between him and the reporter, who had made unfounded accusations of Democratic election rigging against the president. On Monday morning, he took to his Truth Social network, demanding that “Israel and Iran immediately stop shooting.”
Trump is a vindictive and short-tempered man. He has spent much of his second term using federal power against political enemies, for real or imagined insults. He has pursued his vendettas for weeks, months, and years against anyone he feels has criticized him unfairly.
Now he is being publicly humiliated on the world stage, while world leaders are watching. What can a man like Donald Trump do in such a situation? He has made himself look weak and ridiculous. And that could make him more dangerous than ever. / Pamphlet from “The i Paper”
Ia kane zene koken me dere te varferit. Kushedi cfare videosh i ka bere ai qafiri cifut Epstein e tani ja kendojne kengen. E me e bukura vajti e u kruajt me Shqiptaret qe t'i kendojne kengen, 'hengri nje luge corbe te prishur e do vjelle tere jeten'.