Neither war nor state of war

France was at war long before the attacks on November 13. However, those attacks have greatly served as a pretext to intensify military operations. Since the beginning of the 21st century, wars of plunder for control of resources have not been lacking: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic, 
to name a few. These conflicts have to be labelled for what they are, wars of imperialist intervention. France has no «positive role» in these interventions despite claims drawn from a colonial past.
These military interventions by the French state go largely unreported in the media. The little that is mentioned imposes a rationality based on security, with or without humanitarian packaging. The hawkish language is intended to anaesthetise or paralyse the population. Yet how is it possible not to recall the disasters that war creates, the millions of dead, wounded and displaced, the misery and despair that force populations to flee while those profiting from war, the multinational arms dealers, get ever richer? France is the fourth most important arms manufacturer in the world. The colossal cost of war diverts public money from vital social, cultural and ecological needs. Furthermore, the state, which carries out these wars like a pyromaniac fireman, drags us into a monstrous spiral of ever more hatred leading to ever more attacks. Rafale aircraft kill civilians just as innocent as those at Bataclan (theatre).