West interventions in Mideast not gone well: Analyst
Press TV has interviewed Richard Silverstein, a journalist and political commentator in Seattle, to discuss the remarks made by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, saying more attacks are being prepared not just against France but also elsewhere in Europe.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Let’s start off with your thoughts on the recent comments made by the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
Silverstein: Well, of course this is a terrible tragedy that happened in Paris and all of the world mourns with the citizens of France but I am extremely worried about the idea of going to war against a group like ISIS (Daesh) and the implications for what that means for the Middle East, for Syria and for its neighbors.
If you look at the history of Western involvement and intervention in the Middle East, it has not gone well going back to 9/11 when George Bush determined to topple Saddam Hussein and going forward to Afghanistan and to the current Obama administration’s policies in the Middle East, the drone strikes throughout the region. The level of hostility and anger by the Muslim world against Western intervention is so high that however laudable the intentions of striking back against terrorists who have done such a heinous act, I think that it will redound against us and that it will cause far more grief and suffering in the region and it will also cost the lives of the Western soldiers that are involved in this and cost a huge amount in money and military might to try to accomplish this.
Press TV: Many observers of the situation believe that the root cause of such attacks are the very interventionist policies of some of these Western countries. Do you see it in that light as well?
Silverstein: I do to an extent. I think that some countries in the region like Saudi Arabia and to an extent Turkey have actually fueled the launch, the power of ISIS and they have exploited ISIS for their own national interest and the problem with a monster like this is once you create it you cannot control it.
So you may create a monster and hope that it would serve your interest but at a certain point it will break of you and then it will do whatever it wants including strike back at you and I think this happened in Afghanistan against the Russians and when we allied with the Mujahideen who then turned on us and I think the same thing has happened with ISIS.
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