Authored by Erik Sandberg via Medium.com,

The ex chief of staff to Colin Powell has criticized the “former colonial powers; France, U.K., and the U.S.”, questioning their motives for attacking Syria.

In an interview for Newsvoice Think, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson - who served in the U.S. army for 31 years - said that he found it “unbelievable” that Bashar al-Assad would use chemical weapons and thus jeopardize his victory by drawing the United States into the situation.

Listen to the full interview in our weekly Newsvoice Think podcast.

Wilkerson, currently a visiting professor at The College of William & Mary in Virginia, feels the Pentagon pushed Trump to re-establish high ground in a war that has raged since the Arab Spring of 2011.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on Syria

The commercial motivations for the U.S. going to war in Syria were also laid bare by Colonel Wilkerson. He described Lockheed Martin - the American defense technologies company - as “merchants of death” and described the monopolisation arms contractors have over the governments, and the massive profits they make from war.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on Lockheed Martin

“The main reason for the president to go to war in Syria was to get Stormy Daniels, the Russia scandal, James Comey and a host of other things that have imperiled his presidency off the TV screens. Nothing does it like a strike. Our media is quite puerile like that. When they see missiles flying they get transfixed and they love to report on it.”

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on Donald Trump

Wilkerson was heavily critical, not just of Trump, but also of the havoc the U.S. has wreaked since 9/11, berating the country he served for decades in the army, and then as chief of staff to Colin Powell between 2002–2005. He told Newsvoice Think that estimates say that anywhere between 300,000–600,000 could have died from the wars in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Niger, and Somalia”

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on the deaths caused by the “American empire.”

You can read more about Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson at the College of William and Mary.

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