Oliver Stone: 'I'm ashamed for my country'

[Human Torch]

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AP) -- Filmmaker Oliver Stone blasted President George W. Bush Thursday, saying he has "set America back 10 years."

Stone added that he is "ashamed for my country" over the war in Iraq and the U.S. policies in response to the attacks of September 11.

"We have destroyed the world in the name of security," Stone told journalists at the San Sebastian International Film Festival prior to a screening of his latest movie, "World Trade Center." The film tells the true story of the survival and rescue of two policemen who were trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after they went to help people escape.

"From September 12 on, the incident (the attacks) was politicized and it has polarized the entire world," said Stone. "It is a shame because it is a waste of energy to see that the entire world five years later is still convulsed in the grip of 9/11. "It's a waste of energy away from things that do matter which is poverty, death, disease, the planet itself and fixing things in our own homes rather than fighting wars with others. Mr. Bush has set America back 10 years, maybe more."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/29/film.oliverstone.ap/index.html

[Clark2008]

1. Just 10 years?

I think he's set us back to the Dark Ages, myself.

[KyndCulture]

2. 10 yrs?

try 200 years.

[pooja]

3. 10yrs... I think we are at the beginning of time...

[Webster Green]

4. 800 years is more like it...

We're pre-Magna Carta now.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Years?? Try centuries. n/t

[sarge43]

6. Ah Stone

Ten years ago this country had peace and prosperity; the Constitution wasn't a joke. I wish to hell we were set back 10 years ago.

[Human Torch]

7. When I lived in Sunnyvale, CA...

...I was coming home one day and my street was blocked off. I pulled up to the police officer at the barricade, showed him my license and explained that I lived on the street and that I needed to get home for some phone appointments.

He (hesitantly) let me go through.

The reason the street was blocked off?

The recently-elected Bill Clinton and Al Gore were at one of the city buildings giving a talk and taking Q&A from the crowd.

NO protest signs. Not ONE. Just a bunch of people looking like they were on their way to Woodstock...a huge, POSITIVE crowd.

As Lou Reed once sang, "those were different times..."

:patriot: