International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 57

International Journal on Criminology
author of this SOS, Yannick Jadot, was a short-lived Green candidate for the French
presidential election! Despite never having set foot in Syria and appearing to be
entirely unaware of the complexities of the region, this “candidate” also enlists the
Syrian tragedy in his morality with the aim to influence. The fact that a survivor
of the weak and divided French Greens could find himself thus embarked on a
communication campaign spreading recurring NATO messages forms part of this
phenomenology of war discourse.
Without deconstructing all of the devices used by the two authors, we can
see at work the broad strands of transatlantic propaganda: “the eradication of the
population of an entire city” (the eastern areas of Aleppo represent less than a third
of the city’s population); “Aleppo is exploding like Srebrenica and Grozny”; “the
master of the Kremlin accepts,” etc. The opinion page reminds us that “Aleppo had
achieved its revolution ...” What revolution? The imposition of Sharia law, Islamic
courts, and stoning women? Allow me to refer to the very comprehensive and instructive
Le Monde Diplomatique article of December 2016: “Who are the Syrian
rebels?”
This edifying electoral SOS primarily asks the French electorate to judge
and of course to vote, calling for strengthened sanctions against Russia. And
there we have it! Without a word about the West’s global “humanitarian” wars—
in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, etc.—nor the least criticism of the
blindness of the American and French diplomatic services in particular, the new
world enemy is clearly identified: Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
The fabrication of an eternally Soviet Russia constitutes one of the central
devices in the phenomenology of war discourse. In this regard, allow me again to
refer to the conclusions of an academic study, Guy Mettan’s superb book Russie-
Occident, une Guerre de Mille Ans: La Russophobie de Charlemagne à la Crise
Ukrainienne. Pourquoi Nous Aimons Tant Détester la Russie [Russia vs. the West, a
Thousand Year War: Russophobia from Charlemagne to the Ukrainian Crisis. Why
We Love to Hate Russia So Much], published by Éditions des Syrtes in May 2015.
The book is in its fifth edition.
By way of a subliminal message, our two authors call for “independent information.”
Clearly, between the NATO communication strategy and a French
Green Party seeking to retain its last few members, freedom and independent information
relating to the Syrian war would appear guaranteed! In concluding, this
strange opinion piece reflects another broader campaign that seeks to convince
us that Putin’s Russia got Donald Trump elected, with our two authors suggesting
that the same demons are doubtless responsible for Brexit, Alain Juppé’s failure in
the first right-wing primary, and the presence of the Front National in the second
round of the forthcoming French presidential election.
The CIA, FBI, and Barack Obama himself have confirmed that “Russian”
cyber spies did indeed influence the result of the American presidential election.
That remains to be seen. One thing has however been confirmed: the existence of
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