Roger Waters sparks controversy over comments on Taiwan and Russia

Famous English rock band Pink Floyd's co-founder Roger Waters recently sparked an online debate following his controversial interview with CNN. While chatting with Michael Smerconish in an exclusive conversation, the 78-year-old rockstar explained why he dubbed President Joe Biden a "war criminal" on his This Is Not a Drill show.

"He's fueling the fire in the Ukraine, for a start. That is a huge crime. Why won't the United States of America encourage [Volodymyr] Zelensky, [Ukraine's] president, to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?"

Smerconish then stated that Roger was "blaming the party who got invaded," to which Waters slammed NATO's actions in the scenario.

“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.”

Roger Waters also stated that the country got into World War 2 because of Pearl Harbor, when Smerconish argued that the United States plays the role of a liberator.

"You were completely isolationists [beforehand]. Thank god the Russians had already won the bloody war by then. 23 million Russians died, protecting you and me from the Nazi menace.”

Waters also suggested that Smerconish should "go away and read a bit more" about what the US might do if China "were putting nuclear-armed missiles into Mexico and Canada."

Smerconish then intervened and noted that China was "too busy encircling Taiwan as we speak,” and Roger Waters clapped back, stating:

“Taiwan is part of China. That has been absolutely accepted by the whole of international community since 1948. If you don’t know that you aren’t reading enough…. You are believing your side’s propaganda. You can’t have a conversation about human rights and Taiwan without actually doing the reading.”

He added that China "didn’t invade Iraq and kill a million people in 2013" before questioning who they had "invaded and slaughtered" until now. To this, Smerconish responded, "their own," prompting Waters to fire up and say:

“Bullocks! That’s absolute nonsense! Absolute nonsense!”

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Roger Waters' controversial comments sparked debate online

After Roger Waters' news clip went viral over the internet, the Twitterati did not hold themselves back and slammed him for "making a fool of himself" on national television. Several users were offended by his staunch political stances where they pointed out that Waters was not well read with the history of Russia and Taiwan, and should not comment on geopolitics.

However, some users also hailed Waters for speaking the "truth" and standing up for his thoughts during the CNN interview.

The Pink Floyd co-founder has not responded to the backlash yet.