Actor Eric Braeden (TV's "Young & the Restless") talks politics on CNN

He is extremely well spoken and smart. I've watched this guy since I was young as both my grandmother and mother loved Y&R. Very fascnating person. He used to play Nazis in "Combat!" This interview was on CNNHN's "Showbiz Tonight" yesterday.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/22/sbt.01.html

ANDERSON: Very humble, you are. And you`re not a typical Hollywood guy. You`re not part of the Hollywood scene. You`ve been vocal about the fact that you are a citizen first. You`re not shy about expressing your opinions.

You`ve heard us during the show. We`ve been talking about Charlie Sheen`s assertion that 9/11 was a conspiracy. What do you think? Do you think we know about everything that happened on the 9/11?

BRAEDEN: I think it`s an extraordinary assertion to make, and I`m not going to muse about the conspiratorial thoughts of Charlie Sheen right now. I think it`s an extraordinary thing to -- statement to make.

What interests me far more is the kind of foreign policy that came out of that, the foreign policy of unilateralism, of preemptive strikes, the notion that America can, as soon as it surmises danger somewhere, attack that nation. The neocon policy, if you will. I think that has been extremely deleterious for America. It has pissed off a large part of the world, if you want me to talk bluntly, and totally unnecessarily so.

I think, had we waited a few more months, the U.N. Security Council probably would given its imprimatur for the invasion of Iraq, because Saddam Hussein was flaunting one U.N. resolution after another.

ANDERSON: Many people may not know you have been very active in the Middle East and in projects related to the Middle East and Israel. You were -- you grew up in Germany.

BRAEDEN: Right.

ANDERSON: Your dad, an official in the Nazi Party.

BRAEDEN: Right.

ANDERSON: You said America did the right thing in terms of Nazi Germany. But you`ve compared the war in Iraq to Vietnam.

BRAEDEN: Well, let me put it this way. When you reflect upon America`s military history, you realize that America was extremely successful when it was morally righteous.

After having been attacked by Japan, that war was right. The war against Nazi Germany was right. It was morally right.

Where it became murky was with Vietnam. Where it became even more murky was with Iraq. In other words, you have a bunch of technocrats and intellectuals from Harvard, and Yale and Princeton sitting together in think tanks concocting these theories about the domino theory, in case of Vietnam, and now about the extraordinary danger emanating from Saddam Hussein.

I think he was simply, you know, a bit actor in the Middle East who was brandishing his weapons, and he didn`t have weapons of mass destruction, as we have found out.

ANDERSON: You`ve been very vocal, very critical of the Bush administration, even held fundraisers at your house for John Kerry.

BRAEDEN: Right.

ANDERSON: Earlier this week in New York there was an anti-war concert benefit put on, Cindy Sheehan, Michael Stipe from REM. Do you think celebrities have a responsibility to get involved?

BRAEDEN: Brooke, I think every citizen has the responsibility to get involved. The essence of a democracy is to be informed, to be an informed citizen and then to express your opinion.

Nazi Germany would not have existed, had we had a democracy. Had Germany remained a democracy, we wouldn`t be talking about the Holocaust. We wouldn`t be talking about any of this.

So in that regard, I agree with President Bush in wanting to make sure that democracies are supported. But our policies in regard to the Middle East have been so confusing, because for years we have supported nothing but dictatorial feudal potentates in the Middle East, and now all of a sudden, we want to, by hook or by crook, impose democracy on a country that is far from being used to that.

If you go into a country like Iraq, you need to occupy it massively, and need to occupy it for years. You cannot do it with the kind of amount of troops that you used. He should have done with three or four times the amount of troops and then disarmed the country of conventional weapons.

"Colossus: The Forbin Project". Excellent movie.

Braden sounds like a good man. He made some good points in that interview.

I noticed the interviewer said that Braeden's friends still call him "Hans."

People you would never expect to hear from

Why won't MSM force Braeden to take responsibility for his creation of Colossus? Life hasn't been the same since its silicon rule began...

That's hilarious. :D

small role tho

M*********ing BAD ASS!!!

:bounce:

"But our policies in regard to the Middle East have been so confusing, because for years we have supported nothing but dictatorial feudal potentates in the Middle East, and now all of a sudden we want to, by hook or by crook, impose democracy on a country that is far from being used to that."