CAIRO: Hollywood icon Sharon Stone believes the Sept. 11, 2001 bombings of the United States should not have been used as a pretext to launch the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to her comments Monday in a Saudi-owned newspaper.
The actress said in an interview with the Al Hayat daily that she fails to understand how the American public supported those wars to start with, only to denounce their fallout later. She also bemoaned what she called Americans decision to ignore the deaths of so many Iraqis.
“When we choose war, we should understand that we choose murder, bloodletting and torture, Stone was quoted as saying. “I feel at great pain when the spotlight is on the death of 4,000 American soldiers, while 600,000 Iraqi deaths are ignored … War is not a movie, it is a tragedy of dead bodies, victims, the disabled, orphans, widows and the displaced.
Stone spoke in English and her comments were translated and published in Arabic. An English transcript of the interview was not available.
Al Hayat published only excerpts of the interview, made in December when Stone attended the fourth Dubai International Film Festival in the United Arab Emirates. The paper s sister publication, Leha, is to publish the entire interview Wednesday.
According to her remarks, Stone came to the region seeking answers for herself because, she said, the US media have failed to provide Americans with the truth and have distorted it instead.
“I feel sad when I realize how much truth is being changed or obscured in the American media, she said.
Stone added she opposes any military conflict with Iran, saying the West should instead negotiate and use other means of pressure on Tehran, such as a trade boycott and sanctions.
The star of “Basic Instinct and other movies also criticized both Arab countries and Israel for failing to resolve the decades-long key Middle East conflict.
The region is now “addicted to the status quo and whenever a solution is close, hysteria prevails instead, Stone was quoted as saying. “People sometimes get used to their choices and they fear change.
In Dubai, Stone also campaigned to raise over $1 million for AIDS research and awareness about the disease, which remains taboo in the Arab world. -AP
