Sedition Euphemism in Bashar al-Assad’s Speech

extent of violating war crime. They do not hesitate to recruit child soldier, use human shields, rape many women and even mutilated the bodies of Assad’s loyalists to spread fear. Those wrongful acts are better portrayed in plotter and conspirator compared to the euphemistic expression orchestrator which semantically does not include wrongful act. The third semantic property compared is the fact that the action is against other people’s wishes. In orchestrator, the sense is that other parties will most likely accept the arrangement. However, in plotter, since it means planning something wrong or harmful, there is strong possibility that the arrangement or plan is against other people’s wishes or ideas. While in conspirator, it is explicitly described that the arrangement or plan is against other people’s wishes. The wrongful actions conducted by the FSA are clearly against many parties’ wishes. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have sent them an open letter regarding their violation of the International Humanitarian Law. Their misconducts, obviously, are also against Bashar al-Assad’s interests. Therefore, the expressions plotter or conspirator better fit the situation in Syria compared to orchestrator. The table below shows the semantic properties of orchestrator, plotter, and conspirator. orchestrator plotter conspirator arranging something + + + wrongful act - + + against others’ wishes - ± + Table 6. Semantic properties of orchestrator, plotter, and conspirator

6. Satellite State

In this transcript, Assad used the political expression satellite state in refer to some countries which are under the influence of the world’s powerful countries, especially those who wish him off the throne A4. Lexically, satellite state means a country controlled by or depending on a more powerful country. However, this expression does not portray these dependent countries quite realistically. In fact, many countries are being used to further the interest the controlling countries and these dependent countries do not have a choice or power to refuse. An example of such country is Pakistan. Pakistani government and army have been under United States’ strong economy and military wings for years in order to fight Pakistan based jihadist groups. The US has been supporting Pakistan with aid and military trainings and equipments. Pakistani army, due to being indebted to the US, is employed to train Syrian rebel forces in the civil war. This is conducted to help the US achieve their aim, which is to bring down Assad’s military force. It means that the US does not intervene in Pakistan’s internal anti-terrorism measures only. Pakistani army is used by the US for the US’ interest in the Middle East. Satellite state implies that the weaker countries are controlled by the powerful countries for the betterment and interests of the weaker countries themselves. This is obviously not always the case, as shown in the example of Pakistan and United State’s relation. Therefore, the expression satellite state is not the most representative expression of what is actually happening in reality.