How Russophobia changes the way we view Russia’s fight against ISIS

There are only two ways to think about Turkey’s shootdown of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber in the skies over Syria. Either you think Russia “had it coming” as a result of being a great power bully in Syria over the past two months. Or, you think the Turks acted recklessly and irresponsibly, “stabbing Russia in the back,” and then hiding behind NATO immunity while continuing to support ISIS terrorists in Syria.

Guess which way the Western mainstream media views the shootdown of a Russian warplane over Syria?

Viewing Russia as the irresponsible aggressor is the default option in these types of situations. And that’s the bigger problem — a pervasive Russophobia tends to color our view of Russia’s ambitions in its fight against ISIS. We obsess over photos of Putin’s massive, triple-decker war room, convinced that only a diabolical evil empire could have constructed something that massive to wage war. And we implicitly back any state (or non-state actor), as long as it means they are opposed to Russia.

No doubt, things would be different had it been a French warplane striking Syrian terrorists that was shot down.

Take, for example, recent airstrikes in Syria. When France carries out airstrikes in Syria, we assume that it is using precision, pinpoint missiles to take out ISIS terrorists. When Russia carries out strikes in the same region, we assume that the Russians are hitting civilians with “dumb bombs” or indiscriminately bombing ISIS and non-ISIS terrorists at the same time — basically just about anyone who’s opposed to Assad. That’s been the story ever since Russia started flying military sorties against ISIS on Sept. 30.

Or, take for example, the world’s response to two recent terrorist attacks. When the ghastly, infernal terrorists strike in Paris, the entire world grieves. When the terrorists downed a Russian civilian — not military! — warplane over Egypt on Oct. 31, the conventional wisdom is that, somehow, Russia was “asking for it” by playing dirty with ISIS.

The Charlie Hebdo cartoon that outraged Russia.

And it’s not just that we’re blaming the victim as the result of deeply ingrained Russophobia, we are literally laughing at the victim as well. Take the recent highly controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoon about the Russian plane tragedy, which shows innocent Russian civilians being used as bombs over Syria.

In other words, we’re blaming the victim when it comes to Russia and its war against ISIS. The Russian approach is no doubt a bit more rough-and-tumble than the American approach, but there does appear to be growing murmurs in corners of the world that maybe Russia had the right idea, striking the terrorists before they strike us.

Certainly, the people of Paris and Brussels might agree with that idea.

It’s no wonder that Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev has basically said, enough is enough when it comes to these double standards. Why is it, he says, that the world can not grieve for Russia when it loses more than 200 of its citizens to a terrorist bomb on board an innocent airplane?

The reason just might be that the West always assumes some “evil” motive on Russia’s behalf. When the U.S. cozies up to Iraq, it’s Ok. When Russia cozies up to Iran, something’s up. If President Obama meets with Iran’s leaders, it’s portrayed as a breakthrough diplomatic move. If President Putin meets with Iran’s leaders (as he did this week in Tehran), it’s portrayed as a meeting of a new Axis of Evil.

For that matter, all the major terrorist attacks that have happened on Russian soil during the Putin regime have been couched in terms that somehow, the oppressive Russian state “had it coming.” Think Budyonnovsk, Beslan and Volgograd.

Even something as simple as a cat metaphor from the Russian side gets the alarm bells ringing in the Western media. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, “The United States looks like a cat that wants to eat a fish but doesn’t want to wet its feet.” In fact, due to a deep Russophobia in the Western media, just about any announcement or commentary from the Russian side is portrayed in the harshest possible light.

So it will be interesting to see what the West makes of Putin’s latest statement — that Turkey has “stabbed Russia in the back” and that the Turkish leaders are “accomplices of terrorists.” Remember, Putin is also the leader who famously said before launching a new military campaign in Chechnya that he’d “rub out the terrorists in the outhouse” if need be.

The problem is that, due to Russophobia, it’s getting harder and harder for the West and Russia to see eye to eye not just on Syria, but on global terrorism in general. They should be fighting for the same team against a common enemy, instead they are fighting themselves. In fact, the West seems to be making elaborate steps to avoid cooperating with Russia on any aspect of the war against ISIS.

And now we’re stuck with the nasty aftermath of the Turks shooting down Archduke Ferdinand’s plane in Syria.

There are almost certain to be implications for Turkey’s downing of a Russian military warplane — let’s just hope that they don’t involve a high-stakes showdown between NATO and Russia.