Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters rocks UN with explosive anti-war speech

Pink Floyd’s co-founding frontman, Roger Waters astounded the United Nations Security Council on Monday with another epic anti-war speech.

The virtuoso singer-songwriter and bassist behind multiple platinum-hit albums such as Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall addressed diplomats via Zoom in New York, where the UNSC had met to discuss Ukraine – just days before the anniversary of the conflict.

This was the second time Waters has addressed the UN since his last incendiary speech in February 2023.

USING FAME TO INFORM

Over the past two decades at least, the controversial 81-year-old rockstar turned activist has used his platform to draw the attention of his millions of fans to various human rights and anti-war issues. He has been particularly vocal and harshly critical regarding Ukraine, Gaza and the persecution of Julian Assange – to name a few.

No stranger to controversy and relentless personal attacks, Waters has taken major flak from his critics, often being falsely accused of “antisemitism” for his pro-Palestinian stance. His latest appearance at the UN has stirred up backlash and “fury” because he was wearing a pin of the Palestinian flag throughout the speech.

POWERFUL SPEECH, VALUABLE HISTORY LESSON

In the mesmerising 12-minute monologue, Waters summed up the recent historical events that brought Ukraine to this devastating point, and the world to the verge of global (nuclear) war.

For anyone still in the dark about the truth behind this conflict, Waters’ powerful speech was an excellent condensed history lesson.

Here are a few select extracts…

NOT JUST ‘SOME OLD MUSO’, ON A MISSION

Waters opened by addressing the sceptics in the room. “I sense an objection somewhere in this room, a sort of ‘what does he know, he’s just some old musician’”, he said.

“Well, I may be ‘just a musician’ but I do know this; hundreds of thousands of dead Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, and their surviving loved ones, haunt me. I feel their presence in this room and it is haunting.”

He spoke briefly of the father he lost in WW2 (and honoured in the film and album, The Wall). “My father was killed on the morning of the 18th of February 1944, defending the Anzio bridgehead in Italy, from the Nazis. I was five months old. Tomorrow is the 18th of February. So tomorrow I will have carried this for 81 years.”

FOREIGN MANIPULATION: FROM MAIDAN TO MINSK

Waters then reminded the delegates why the UNSC assembled that day. “It’s the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Minsk 2 agreements“, he said. “Why are these agreements important? Because the people of Ukraine are divided: they are either pro-Russian or anti-Russian.”

He recounted how the Maidan “revolution” (coup) arose in November 2013 when protests broke out in Kyiv against the democratically elected pro-Russian government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Between 18 and 20 February 2014, these protests escalated into violent clashes between Maidan activists, police and “unidentified others”, resulting in the deaths of almost 100 civilians and 13 policemen.

THE NOTORIOUS, LEAKED, NULAND-PYATT CALL

Waters asked an interesting, pertinent question…that has ostensibly been answered by now.

“Was it just a deadly political clash between different factions in Ukrainian society? Or, was it more complicated than that?” He asked. “Was there outside interference? For instance, did I see Senator John McCain on the podium sticking his oar in?”

Expectedly, Waters brought up that now notorious leaked phone call.

“We’ve all listened to the famous cellphone call between (Assistant Secretary of State) Victoria Nuland and (US Ambassador to Ukraine), Geoff Pyatt, together calmly picking out a new Ukrainian president”, he said. “Who could forget Victoria Nuland’s casual aside, ‘F**k the EU’”.

“It all turned very nasty”, Waters continued. “Dead bodies everywhere. This is one of the problems with regime change, isn’t it? Dead…bodies. They’re all somebody’s loved one.”

UKRAINE’S BANDERITE NAZI PROBLEM

Then Waters put a spotlight on the dark and ugly part of the country that the Western MSM has chosen to ignore or outright lie about since the conflict started; Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem.

“Some say the new government in Kyiv was unduly influenced by right-wing factions and followers of Stepan Bandera.” He then quipped, “If you don’t know who Stepan Bandera is, you shouldn’t be here, you should be at home watching The Bill Maher Show or the Kardashians.”

(Waters is referring to the pro-Hitler Ukranian paramilitary officer who helped the Nazis exterminate thousands of Jews and Poles to “purify” Ukraine. Zelensky and his cabal worship this guy as a hero. That’s why they’re called “Banderites“.)

FACT: CRIMEA WAS NOT “ANNEXED”, IT SECEDED

Google any MSM outlet reporting on Crimea’s absorption by Russia, and they’ll probably use the word “annexed“. Crimea was “annexed” by Russia in 2014, they endlessly claim.

However, as Waters points out, “Immediately after the change of the (Ukrainian) government in 2014, Crimea chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.” In a referendum held at the time, 95% of Ukrainians in Crimea voted in favour of merging with Russia.”

ENTER ZELENSKY, “THE PERFORMER”

Waters moved on to 2019 when a new Ukrainian president was elected – a popular actor called Volodymyr Zelensky. (A man who, until then, was most famous for drag comedy sketches and playing the piano – without using his hands.) Zelensky ran his campaign on a promise to resurrect and implement Minsk 2 and won in a landslide.

“Did he implement Minsk 2?”, Waters asks. “Uhm, no.”

“But this was the time of Russiagate, anything a Russian said fell on deaf ears”, Waters explained. “There was no grownup conversation about Ukraine in the USA. No one in Washington, for instance, had taken in US Ambassador William J Burns’ cable of ten years earlier entitled; “Nyet means Nyet.” (“No means No.”)

That cable from Burns related to Russia’s concerns over a nuclear-armed, NATO-member Ukraine on its doorstep.

“Like many other redline warnings”, Waters said somberly, “it was ignored…

And things got worse.”

WAR COULD’VE BEEN AVOIDED

“On 24 February 2022, the chickens came home to roost. Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine and soldiers started dying. My blood ran cold on that day”, Waters murmured. “War? Are you serious? Why wasn’t this avoided?”

Answering his own question with an obvious answer, he said, “Of COURSE it could have been avoided. It’s called “diplomacy”. It’s called common sense. It’s called talking to one another. War is only ever an absolute last resort.”

Then he added, quietly and somewhat bitterly; “Except, of course, it isn’t…is it? If you think about it, we have come to accept war as a way of life.”

REMINDER: WAR IS A RACKET – AND A VERY PROFITABLE ONE

Waters then quoted the title of General Smedley Butler’s 1935 book; “War is a Racket”, he said. “It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious, and it is the only racket that is international in scope.”

Then he looked up and asked, “Who profits from the racket?” Whipping off his glasses and staring down the room, he answered; “Rich people do. Oligarchs.”

“Since the Second World War the racket has been our constant companion”, he lamented. “Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Palestine…” There, he paused. “Well…Palestine isn’t really a war, is it?” He added, with a growl, “Don’t get me started…”

He turned back to Ukraine.

HOW BOJO BLEW UP THE PEACE DEAL

“It looked as if the war in Ukraine might die stillborn because people started talking to each other”, Waters mused. “Mr Zelensky started talking to Mr Putin and, by the end of April, a ceasefire agreement had been negotiated and agreed in Istanbul.”

Then he described how then British Prime Minister, Boris ‘Bojo’ Johnson arrived in Kyiv with a simple, reprehensible message for Zelensky: “Forget Istanbul and Minsk”, Waters recounted. “This War suits the Americans down to the ground, they think it’ll weaken Russia. So it’s been decided to continue for as long as it takes. They’ll keep sending you ammo of course. Just fight on”.

Waters punctuated that with a low, breathless, “Wow…”

WILL ‘CIVILIZED’ COMMON SENSE PREVAIL?

He confessed to the room that he wrote letters to Putin, and Volodymyr’s wife, Mrs Zelensky. He reminded them that the reason the world survived the existential (Cuban missile) crisis in ‘1962 was because, “Our leaders, Nikita Khrushchev and John F Kennedy spoke to one another on the telephone like civilized human beings, and common sense prevailed.”

Waters then asked the room, somewhat sarcastically, “Wouldn’t it be nice if our leaders today spoke to one another on the telephone like civilised human beings and common sense prevailed?”

A GLIMMER OF LIGHT, IN A DARK TUNNEL OF WAR

Again answering his question, he noted, “Two of our leaders have already answered that call; Trump and Putin have spoken to one another on the telephone.” He added, “That…in this musician’s humble opinion, is a move in the right direction.”

The veteran rock god concluded with; “Maybe there is a glimmer of light at the end of this dark tunnel of war.

It’s come three years and hundreds of thousands of priceless lives too late, but maybe, just maybe…it’s a start.”

ARE YOU A FAN OF ROGER WATERS’ MUSIC OR ACTIVISM?

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