Oliver Stone on Bush, Cheney, and Iraq
While discussing his new film World Trade Center with the LATimes’ Patrick Goldstein, here’s what Oliver Stone had to say about Bush, Cheney, and Iraq:
Stone’s political views are as outspoken as ever. “I’ve traveled the world and seen it everywhere β we lost the trust of the world,” he says. “So now we have more death from terror, not less. Not to mention a constitutional breakdown.”
Startled, I asked, “Who had a constitutional breakdown?” Stone’s eyes widened. “America, that’s who!” he says. “You know, there’s a great line from ‘Alexander’: ‘Conquer your fear and you will conquer death.’ That’s what the heroes of our film and the rescuers did on 9/11. But since then, we haven’t fought smartly. We’ve fought stupidly. We’ve overreached.”
Stone rattles off a list of countries that have successfully fought terrorism in recent history. “We had something to learn from them, but we ignored them. We didn’t have to go to war in Iraq when the enemy was really 4,000 Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. If we had successfully hunted down Bin Laden, we could’ve finished him off and most people would’ve still been with us.”
He’s on a roll now. “It was hard for us Vietnam vets to see Iraq creep up on us, just the way Vietnam did. I really believe if Bush or Cheney had fought in a war they wouldn’t have put us through all the pain and suffering. I have three kids, including a 21-year-old son. Are they going to be Stealth jet pilots, like those guys in ‘Why We Fight,’ smiling after they’ve dropped the first bombs in Iraq?”
Why am I having Michael Moore flashbacks?
Hat tip: KLO at NRO