International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 54

Syria: An Epistemological Obstacle
Tatars. Finally, tens of thousands of women and children were dying on a daily
basis under the deadly carpet bombing of the Russian and Syrian air forces.
Amid this chorus of fake news, if not propaganda, Le Monde led the way.
From the wealthy neighborhoods of Beirut, its correspondent wrote: “Deluge of
Russian and Syrian fire to break Aleppo—This bloody bombing aims to destroy
the rebellion and dishearten the population.” Bravo: “Bomb, surround, starve. For
months, for years, with no let up. Until the exhausted enemy decides to lay down
its arms and evacuate the area it is defending.”
The first piece of “information” provided by Le Monde: the same terrorist
groups that had slaughtered Christians, Alawites, Kurds, Druze, loyalist Sunnis
and others in Syria for over four years were “defending” Aleppo. What remarkable
news! It is worth noting in passing that the fighter jets and drones of the
American-led Coalition are responsible for “strikes,” which are usually “surgical”
and “targeted,” as was the case—at that very moment—at the Deir ez-Zor airport,
where over 90 Syrian soldiers were killed just a few hours after signature of the
ceasefire in Aleppo. Russian and Syrian planes, on the other hand, bomb with indifferent
and unlimited sadistic cruelty, just as Allied air forces bombed the towns
and villages of Normandy in 1944, and then Dresden and other Germany cities of
no strategic value.
A second statement from Le Monde: “the Syrian regime is waging ( ... ) a
slow and cruel war of suffocation that perfectly suits the loyalist army, a patchwork
of militia and regular units with limited offensive capacities.” Is the Le Monde correspondent
aware of any wars that are quick, non-cruel, or even kind and beneficent?
Does he truly understand the nature of a civil war, a civil-regional, civil-international
war? As for “limited offensive capacities,” if he had more experience
on the ground he would have observed the technical transformation of the three
corps of the Syrian National Army, which are now equipped with state of the art
Russian and Chinese kit. In fact, just a few paragraphs later he refers to “sophisticated
weapons ...” 3 Make up your mind!
So the Syrian Army has allies that have decided to support it—how dreadful!—in
recapturing the entirety of its national territory in order to prevent the
territorial and political breakdown seen in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. As for
Chechen, Chinese, North African, European, and in particular French mercenaries?
Not a word. Radio silence also on the delivery of arms and mercenaries funded
by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf plutocracies with the support of a number of
Western intelligence agencies, including the French external security agency!
A third assessment from Le Monde, highly symptomatic of the cultural quality
of the body of “modern journalism”: “a technique reeking of the Middle Ages
...” Is this down to ignorance or haste? Here, our permanent special correspondent
3 Benjamin Barthe, “En Syrie, déluge de feu du régime et de la Russie pour briser Alep,” Le Monde,
September 28, 2016, accessed March 3, 2018, http://www.lemonde.fr/syrie/article/2016/09/28/
deluge-de-feu-russo-syrien-pour-briser-alep_5004702_1618247.html.
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