The Smoky Train and the Untouchable Bully

On the morning of January 3, 2026, I was on an RER train in Paris. It was crowded as usual, and then I noticed this woman. She clearly looked mentally unwell: talking loudly to herself, yelling at invisible people, and smoking right there in the closed carriage. The smoke was everywhere, bothering everyone around her. People close by were clearly uncomfortable, coughing a little, shifting in their seats. Even I, standing farther away, felt annoyed by the smell and the whole situation.

But here’s the thing: nobody said a word. Nobody asked her to stop, nobody called the conductor, nobody did anything. She wasn’t big or threatening in a physical way, but her behavior made her untouchable at that moment. The risk of confronting her felt too high, so we all just sat there and dealt with it.

Later that day, I read the news on what was happening between the US under Trump’s administration and Venezuela. The scene from the RER train stuck with me because it felt exactly like the situation with international law.

On paper, there are rules. Smoking is banned on trains to keep the air clean and people safe. International law says no country can just invade another, bomb it, or grab its leader without a real reason. But when someone powerful enough breaks those rules, the rules suddenly don’t matter anymore.

Everyone is “deeply alarmed” (as UN Secretary-General Guterres put it). Countries are condemning it as illegal. The UN is talking about “dangerous precedents.” But at the end of the day, it’s just words. No one is stopping the US. No sanctions that actually hurt. No real punishment.

Why? Because the US is too big, too strong. It has the veto in the UN, the biggest army, the biggest economy. Confronting it would cost too much—just like confronting that woman on the train felt risky for regular passengers.

This shows the hard truth: laws are great when everyone follows them or when the rule-breaker is weak enough to be forced. But when the bully is the strongest one in the room, the law just sits there and does nothing. It becomes no more than pure fiction.

Just like that smoky train carriage: the rule existed, but in reality, we all just breathed it in and waited for the next stop.

Maybe one day the system will change. Maybe the “passengers”—other countries—will find a way to enforce the rules better. But right now? Power wins. And that leaves the rest of us just hoping the smoke clears on its own.