Posted on 12/01/2006 12:36:01 PM PST by jmc1969
Acclaimed screen star DUSTIN HOFFMAN has slammed US President GEORGE W BUSH for manipulating the 9/11 terrorist attacks to facilitate the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
The RAIN MAN actor now feels "self-conscious" about being American because he can understand why the nation has become a focus for resentment around the world. He says, "I think that the administration manipulated the grief of 9/11. They did it then and they do it now. "Everybody knows why they wanted to go into Iraq and it had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction.
"I'm an American and it's not a good feeling. When Americans say, 'I don't know why they hate us so much,' that's an uneducated response.
"There are lots of reasons why we're hated."
"I'm an American and it's not a good feeling."
Why? America is much more than any one person, at any one time in history. Do you only feel good about being an American when things are just peachy? Does the level of your admiration and pride in America depend on 'How we look' to others?
It amazes me how quickly so many of these Hollywood 'Stars' become 'ashamed' of America, the very country that enabled them to live a life that most from other countries could never even fathom that kind of luxury, let alone publicly SPEAK OUT AGAINST.
Ungrateful parasitic creeps!
They even made a movie about it - The Ugly American.
I wish President Bush would start doing movie reviews. If Hollywood is qualified to tell him how to run the government, he's qualified to tell them how to make movies.
I wouldn't want to be a 4'0" American either, unless I was nine years old or so. Dustin must be older than dirt by now so why doesn't he just shut his piehole and eat his prunes and leave the rest of us alone? What a dork. ( can we say midget anymore?)
I do believe there were other reasons besides WMDs, but WMDs was the argument that was easiest to sell. What other reasons were there?
* Security for Israel. Saddam was financing suicide bombers. Notice how, ever since Saddam's capture, the suicide bombings have been practically ended? Overthrowing Saddam also lessened the chance of a missile strike on Israel from Iraq.
* Removing a regional threat. Saddam led instability to the region, someone capable of invading Kuwait or gassing Kurds.
* Access to new oil fields. Western control of the Iraqi oil fields would eventually make America less dependent on the unreliable Saudis for oil. While I'd hoped the U.S. would be more aggressive in developing Iraqi oil for American use, the option is still there while it was impossible under Saddam.
* Building a democracy in the region. While high-minded, the goal of turning Iraq into a symbol of Arab democracy is noble and one which may still eventually succeed.
* Fortification for a conflict with Iran. If America can keep a friendly Iraq to the West and a friendly Afghanistan to the East, Iran is more vulnerable to U.S.-led attacks should war become inevitable. Neither was true as of 2000.
There's more, but you get my point. These would have been harder sells toward committing U.S. troops to a ground invasion but they can and possibly will be benefits to the U.S. for invading Iraq apart from the WMD issue.
Not that I'd expect an actor to be bright enough to figure that out.
Dusty probably has this little ditty from Iggy on his ipod:
I'm only five foot one
I got a pain in my heart
All the night I'm working
In the amusement park
With a bottle of aspirin
A sack full of jokes
I wish I could go home
With all the big folks
I have many conflicting thoughts about how the Iraq war is being waged, but I have always believed that President Bush is acting in what he believes are the best interests of America.
Rot in Hell Dusty.
So true. I wrote to a fellow from England for a while. He thought all Americans liked to party and were awake 24 hours a day. He wasn't the sort that was an idiot about most things. It's just what it looked like from all the media he had been exposed to from America.
And the liberal who comes riding to rescue on his white horse.
I would say that he is not one to judge a world security threat if he can't judge his next door neighbors any better than his history demonstrates.
None of them valid.
Meant to state that the terrorists blew up their own house. Not Hoffman's.
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