Today RT News presenter Karen Tararche interviewed Daily Bell Chief Editor, Anthony Wile, live on-air about the violent uprisings underway across the Muslim world, purportedly in response to an obscure anti-Muslim video, "Innocence of Muslims," about which we reported previously. Watch the video clip above to hear what Wile had to say.
Following is a transcript of the interview:
RT: Let's get some reaction and analysis from Anthony Wile, head of the think tank website, TheDailyBell.com. Anthony, thanks for joining RT today. We've seen ten days of protests already with dozens killed across the Muslim world. How could all of this have been caused by a short amateur clip on YouTube?
Anthony Wile: First of all, I don't believe that it is the cause so much as the spark.
The cause of what we're seeing here today is many decades of foreign policy that backs an interventionist type of occupation in countries around the world. The Middle East is just another region that has been destabilized as the US, who really plays the role as the frontline bullies in the international spread of democracy on behalf of Western Intel – the US has built over 900 bases in 145 countries around the world.
Spreading democracy at the end of a gun barrel or with drones flying overhead, forcing it upon citizens who never asked for the US and the envoys to come into their countries to democratize them, is what is causing these conflicts that you're seeing today. This crisis is warranted because of US foreign policy and the interventionist style tactics that are utilized in order to occupy these nations and create chaos, out of which centralization is the desired goal.
RT: In addition, America's unmanned drones have been carrying out deadly strikes across the Muslim world for years. Why has the practice been largely tolerated for all this time?
Anthony Wile: First of all, the people on the ground have very little that they can actually do other than what you see, which is to rise up in discontent. And how can you blame them for being discontented with what has been happening?
The leaders who have been deposed, many over the last decade throughout the Middle East, have been replaced with puppet regimes. Those puppet regimes, in the day of what we call the Internet Reformation in which we live today, are exposed for exactly what they are. They are really nothing more than fictitious elements of Western Intel that have been put in place in order to supposedly care about the interests of the local people when the drones are flying overhead and dropping bombs and killing civilians at will – on people who have never been tried, by the way, in a court but who are branded as terrorists because of their point of view. This is not something that you could expect, if it happened in America by another nation, for people to stand by idly after a period of time.
So the leaders in those countries are facing discontent by the populace who now understand and realize that they are simply put under the thumb of western Intel, led by the US, led by NATO and led by international banking syndicates.
RT: We've seen Al-Qaeda flags being flown during these anti-American protests. Will Washington see this as a wake-up call to rethink its support of al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria?
Anthony Wile: First of all, I don't believe that the US wants to see that happen. I think the US is happy to see – and once again, Western Intel power – is happy to see the conflict and the crisis that is happening. Without that there is no justification for further occupation in these countries and without the occupation there is no justification for the centralization of power in the Middle East, which is the desired goal.
So I don't think Washington really cares too much about whether they're on one side or the other of the supposed Al Qaeda situation. They'll do whatever is necessary in order to maintain the conflict so that their purposeful, on-the-ground position is maintained and actually elevated. So the crisis plays into the hands of those who wish and desire more centralization and power.
RT: Finally, I do want to draw your attention to government orders to protest peacefully. They are largely being ignored in some countries. Why aren't those people listening to their leaders?
Anthony Wile: Because they don't believe in those leaders as being leaders for the people or for the interests of the country. They believe that those leaders are nothing more, once again, than fronts for Western power. And the US, if they're not happy with whoever is sitting in office exercising the control and will of the US State Department, then they'll be ousted. It's that simple.
So the people, I think, see that. I think they see that the leadership in Pakistan is not real leadership so they're not about to listen to what their leaders have to say.
##End of transcript##
You can also watch the interview below (from TheDailyBell's YouTube user channel).
Finally, a song comes to mind that seems somewhat apropos for the times in which we live ...
Which Way Are Ya Goin'? by Jim Croce
Which way are you going? Which side will you be on?
Will you stand and watch while
All the seeds of hate are sown?
Will you stand with those who say,
Let His will be done?
One hand on the Bible,
One hand on the gun.
One hand on the Bible,
One hand on the gun.
Which way are you looking? Is it hard to see?
Do you say what's wrong for him is not wrong for me?
You walk the streets of righteousness but you refuse to understand.
You say you love the baby
Then you crucify the man.
You say you love the baby
Then you crucify the man.
Everyday, things are changing, words once honored turned to lies.
People wondering, can you blame them?
It's too far to run, and too late to hide.
Now you turn your back on all the things that you used to preach.
Now it's, Let him live in freedom, if he lives like me.
Well your light has changed, confusion reigns. What have you become?
All your olive branches turned to spears
When your flowers turned to guns.
Your olive branches turned to spears
When your flowers turned to guns.