TIM ROBBINS - ROBBINS BLASTS IRAQ WAR `EXPERTS' IN TV RANT

ROBBINS BLASTS IRAQ WAR `EXPERTS' IN TV RANT

Actor/activist TIM ROBBINS lost his cool on U.S. TV during an appearance on REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER on Friday night (24Aug07) when he attacked the "experts" who took America to war with Iraq. The Shawshank Redemption star, who has been an outspoken critic of the conflict in the Middle East, was among a panel discussing the Iraq war on the HBO political discussion show when he claimed the military and strategic officials who decided war in Iraq would be a good idea should no longer be considered experts. Robbins raged, "Before we got into this war, there were countless military experts, intelligence analysts that told us this was a good idea, we had to do it. "They presented their information and were so terribly wrong. These people are still affecting public policy and they're still considered experts. "I'm sorry, shouldn't there be rule or a law that says if you f**ked things up so badly, you can no longer be considered an expert. "The American people were suckered into this war with false information and with propaganda." Robbins called on President George W. Bush and his government to apologise to Americans for misleading them into war. He added, "American people would never have sanctioned this war (if they were) given the facts, and the facts are coming more and more to life. "The existence of this disaster now doesn't mean we have to be complicit in your crime." And when fellow panellist, journalist Stephen Hayes, attacked the actor for his comments, Robbins turned on him: "You're partly responsible. You should start with an apology; you wrote a book saying there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. You can lie a thousand times; it doesn't make it true."