Hysterical and out of control, French pundits magnify US narrative

The general happens to be a professor of strategy at Sciences Po and HEC, and had tried to inflame French public sentiment with the fake news that a Russian strike had been aimed at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporijia.

“It is on the one hand the use of tactical nuclear weapons, that is to say on Ukraine,” continued General Vincent Desportes. “It is normal in the Russian army, when one experiences a military difficulty on the ground, to move to the next level. And to succeed in advancing, they will fire a tactical nuclear weapon, on a city or on an enemy concentration. Which would completely change the nature of the war and would astound the world.”

Mali echoes US Afghan retreat

Russia does not have a tactical nukes doctrine, but this did not stop the general to espouse his fact-free commentary. Desportes graduated from the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, specialising in armour warfare. He also graduated from the US Army War College and was Military attaché in the French embassy in the US, aid to the General secretary for national defence, and director of the Centre de doctrine et d’emploi des forces.

Under his tutelage sadly, anti-French sentiment in the Sahel and rising violence created space for the Russian Wagner mercenary group to step in.

France’s imminent military withdrawal from Mali has grim echoes of the West’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan last year, according to François Brousseau writing in Le Devoir.

France is leaving Mali to avoid being kicked out. In the region, anti-French hostility is rising, in governments as well as in public opinion. One after another, fragile and powerless democracies are overthrown by coups (Mali 2020, Guinea 2021, Burkina Faso 2022). In West Africa, where the French could previously bank on tons of goodwill, the French are now blamed for these events instead.

This week, on France Info, the deputy of the political party La France insoumise Alexis Corbière revealed that France had sent “bullet-proof vests and some anti-tank missiles” to Ukraine. This information had been classified as a “defense secret” until the leak.

Calls to assassinate Putin

Invited to the microphone of RTL, Saturday March 5, retired General Christophe Gomart, former head of intelligence, announced that killing Vladimir Putin would be “one of the possible actions” to put an end to the war in Ukraine. Gomart echoed the pleas of US Senator Lindsay Graham.

As did Graham, General Gomart must have noticed that there had been no strategic initiatives from the Ukrainian Army lately. Translated this means the Ukrainians are seeing their army routed.

On the Sean Hannity Show (Fox News) on 3 March 2022, Senator Lindsey Graham had called for the assassination of President Vladimir Putin, in the same way that Klaus von Stauffenberg had attempted to kill Adolf Hitler.

French General Henry Pinard Legry also told television viewers on LCI this week that Putin was a “high value target” just like those that the French had eliminated in Mali.

“To hear these words I am really indignant. To achieve this goal would mean the failure of the EU and the West. Moreover, this is also envisaged for Mali. I hope that the Malian people will take this seriously,” a viewer responded with utter disgust.

An entire programme on LCI was in fact dedicated to the assassination of Putin “as the only option” in a near hysterical fashion, explaining in detail how Western intelligence services should go about it. It was quite painful to watch adults turn into over-excited kindergarten conspiracists.

The Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn last Wednesday also called for the “physical elimination” of Russian president Vladimir Putin, but then quickly back-pedalled saying it had been a slip of the tongue and a mistake. On Wednesday morning he was interviewed by Radio 100,7 about the war in Ukraine: “That would be all you could wish for him [Putin], that he would really be physically eliminated so that this stops”.

During a public session of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which sat on 8 March 2022, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines painted a grim portrait of the Russian President concocted by her team. On the following day, Democratic Senator Angus King appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe referred to Putin as “the most dangerous man in world history”.