‘He Would Say You’re Out of Your Mind’: Anderson Cooper Tells Cornel West Ukrainian Official Would Object To Conflict as ‘Proxy War’
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper told Green Party presidential candidate Cornel West that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba would oppose his characterization of Ukraine’s war with Russia as a US proxy war during an argument on Monday.
After West said that the people of Ukraine were “being caught between this proxy war between the American empire” and Russia, Cooper responded:
I just spoke to the foreign minister of Ukraine — we’re gonna have that interview later on — I think if you said to him you’re standing with the people of Ukraine in solidarity, and you’re saying that they are just victims in this proxy war, he would say you’re out of your mind. I mean, they are thankful. They are thankful for NATO, they are thankful for the US. You can call it the American empire, but they are thankful for all these countries rallying to their side. I mean, I’ve been there, you’ve probably been there as well. I mean it is a horrible— it’s an invasion, I mean of killing civilians in cities.
“Oh no, it is a criminal invasion. I’m not denying it’s a criminal invasion,” replied West. “But what I’m saying is you go back to the Minsk talks, you go back to March one month after the war began, my brother. I’m calling for ceasefire.”
Cooper shot back, “Vladimir Putin isn’t really listening to what you say, or I say, or anybody says. I mean, he’s doing what he wants to do.”
The CNN anchor added, “You saw what he did to Grozny in the ’90s. I mean he flattened that city. Civilians were trapped in that city, the world didn’t come to the rescue of Grozny. He did exactly what he wanted to do. I mean, unchecked he will slaughter people.”
West argued, “Well, I mean unchecked, he will slaughter folk. Unchecked, what we did in Iraq was slaughtering people. Unchecked, what we’ve done in other places…”
Cooper then protested, “I respect you. You know, I love you, but I do think, I do think it’s inappropriate to compare the Russian bombing of Grozny and what we witnessed there with the war in Iraq.”
“Half a million Iraqis killed, my brother. Half a million,” shot back West, to which Cooper responded:
I certainly understand. I also saw a lot of Americans getting killed and I saw, you know, the horrors of Saddam Hussein. I’m just saying, I don’t think it’s accurate to compare the pummeling of a city by Russian artillery with civilians inside, pummeling every single day with the intention of just destroying and flattening a city, with actions the US took.
Watch above via CNN.
