Us & Them: Roger Waters Accused Of Being ‘Putin Apologist’ By David Gilmour
(Steve Watson) Pink Floyd’s primary song writer and creative force Roger Waters has been viscously verbally attacked by his own former band mate David Gilmour as a ‘Putin apologist’ for calling for peace in Ukraine.
Gilmour, who has feuded with Waters for decades, didn’t directly lambast Waters, however, he simperingly retweeted the scathing words of his wife, author Polly Samson.
Samson launched the verbal assault in response to the publication of an interview Waters gave to German newspaper Berliner Zeitung in which he called for peace and said that Western politicians should attempt to better understand Putin’s motivations.
“[Putin] launched it on the basis of reasons that if I have understood them well are: 1. We want to stop the potential genocide of the Russian-speaking population of the Donbas. 2. We want to fight Nazism in Ukraine,” Waters said in the interview.
Waters, who posted a translation of the interview on his website, also described Joe Biden as a “war criminal” for supplying arms to Ukraine.
Gilmour’s wife also labeled Waters ‘antisemitic’, a charge regularly leveled at him for his criticism of Israel’s military occupation of the Gaza Strip.
Samson also levelled more personal charges against Waters calling him ‘mysogynistic’ and ‘thieving’:
Every word demonstrably true https://t.co/KWk4I3bMTN
— David Gilmour (@davidgilmour) February 6, 2023
Following the tweet, Waters’ representatives issued a statement denouncing the comments as “incendiary and wildly inaccurate,” noting that Waters is “currently taking advice to his position.”
— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) February 6, 2023
Meanwhile, Waters gave a speech before the UN Security Council on Wednesday, again calling for peace in Ukraine.
“What are your goals?” he asked the representatives in attendance, adding “What is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Bigger profits for war industries? More power globally? A bigger share of the global cake? Is Mother Earth a cake to be gobbled up? Does not a bigger share of the cake mean less for everyone else?”
Waters continued, “Your wars will destroy the planet that is our home, and along with every other living thing, we will be sacrificed on the altar of two things; profits from the war to line the pockets of the very, very few and the hegemonic march of some empire or other towards unipolar world domination. Please reassure us that that is not your vision for there is no good outcome down that road. That road leads only to disaster.”
Waters had, somewhat bizarrely, been invited to speak at the meeting by Russia. The singer denounced the “illegal” invasion of Ukraine, but noted that it was provoked by NATO.
Concluding his speech, Waters called for “an immediate ceasefire” and for the global elite to “drop the arms race and perpetual war as their accepted modus operandi.”
“We can stop squandering all our precious resources on war. We can feed our children, we can keep them warm. We may even learn to cooperate with all our brothers and sisters and even save our beautiful planet home from destruction. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Waters urged.
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