Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters is currently amid his This Is Not A Drill Tour, which CNN recently covered in a segment with anchor Michael Smerconish.
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During Smerconish’s interview with Waters, the host questioned the political elements Waters has displayed throughout the show’s run, putting particular emphasis on the montage of “war criminals” that includes a picture of President Joe Biden.
“Well, he’s fueling the fire in Ukraine, for a start,” Waters replied. “That’s a huge crime. Why won’t the United States of America encourage [Volodymyr] Zelensky to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?”
Smerconish responded, “But you’re blaming the party who got invaded. You’ve got it reversed.”
“Well, any war, when did it start? What you need to do is look at the history, and you can say, ‘Well, it started on this day.’ You could say it started in 2008… This war is basically about the action and reaction of NATO pushing right up to the Russian border, which they promised they wouldn’t do when [Mikhail] Gorbachev negotiated the withdrawal of the USSR from the whole of Eastern Europe,” Waters replied.
“What about our role as liberators?” Smerconish asked. “We have no role as liberators,” Waters replied.
The pair then continued to go back and forth debating World War II history. “I would suggest to you, Michael, that you go away and read a bit more, and then try and figure out what the United States would do if the Chinese were putting nuclear-armed missiles into Mexico and Canada?” Waters said.
From there the conversation dissented into talks about China, Taiwan, and which country in the world was the biggest global threat. Though the conversation got pretty heated, the two seemed to leave things on good terms. Check out the interview below.
Photo: Brian Lima / Rogers and Cowan
