New Delhi: Former US Army Colonel and Political commentator, Douglas Macgregor, has described the proposed "Board of Peace" as a mechanism driven by corruption and personal enrichment, alleging that it has little to do with resolving the Gaza crisis.
He described the situation in Gaza as a "tragedy and an atrocity," while alleging that influential financial interests surrounding US President Donald Trump are using the proposed "Board of Peace" as a cover for graft rather than a genuine effort to address the crisis.
In an interview with ANI, Macgregor said, "The board of peace is a large exercise in graft and corruption. President Trump has appointed himself the chairman of the board for life. And he's bringing in his billionaire friends, who are creating an enormous slush fund with no accountability and no obligation to respond to anyone. This doesn't have much to do with Gaza. If you read most of it, Gaza's never mentioned. It only comes up in a certain subsection."
"This is all about a group of excessively rich people who want to be richer yet. They're setting up a board of directors to sort of guarantee the continued flow of capital into their pockets. This is not a serious effort whatsoever in connection with Gaza."
"Gaza is a tragedy and an atrocity. We should be ashamed of ourselves for supporting it. But you have to look again at the people surrounding President Trump. Who are they and the enormous wealth they represent? These are financial capitalists. These are not capitalists who built anything. This is not JD Rockefeller, who built the world's largest oil industry, or Carnegie, who built the steel industry or Vanderbilt, who built railroads. They make money from transaction fees, moving money around. Their world is about to end because we're close to bankruptcy. And I think all of these notions of the Board of Peace, which is just a cover story for graft," he added.
Macgregor alleged that Pakistan joined the proposed "Board of Peace" by paying an entry fee, claiming the move was aimed at gaining access to the process rather than taking a principled stand on Gaza.
"I think Pakistan is much like Egypt, many countries. They say, let's pay the entrance fee, so at least we're in on the graft. Let's be part of this so we at least know what's being done. It's not a question of whether they support the partitioning or the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. It's well, you know, this is the richest, most powerful state in the world. They're forming this with other rich people. Let's pay the entrance fee and see if we can find out what's happening. I don't think the Pakistanis are serious at all about whatever we want to do," Macgregor said.
The "Board of Peace" was unveiled as part of phase two of the fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas to end the Israel-Gaza conflict. US President Trump signed the charter for his Board of Peace on January 22 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling it "one of the most consequential bodies ever created".
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