Tony Bennett's conversation with Howard Stern turned political when he stopped by the radio host's Sirius XM program on Monday.
Bennett told Stern that when he was being honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005, then President Bush revealed to Bennett that "he made a mistake [about the Iraq war]."
And with that, Bennett and Stern were off into a discussion about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"You gotta eliminate war, but what do you do with these terrorists who blew up the World Trade Center?" Stern inquired, to which Bennet replied, "Who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists, or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don't make a right."
He continued that he wasn't on board with the statement that those who attacked started the conflict. "They flew the plane in, but we caused it. We were bombing them, and they told us to stop."
Later on in the conversation, Bennett added that he believed "To start a war in Iraq was a tremendous, tremendous mistake internationally," according to Mediaite.
The singer, who was promoting his new album "Duets II," has since posted a statement to clarify the comments he made on Stern's show, and to apologize if they were misconstrued.
"I am so grateful to be an American and as a World War II veteran, I was proud to fight to protect our values, which have made America the greatest country on the planet," the 85-year-old singer says in the statement.
"There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country," the statement continues. "My life experiences -ranging from the Battle of the ***** to marching with Martin Luther King – made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior. I am sorry if my statements suggested anything other than an expression of my love for my country, my hope for humanity and my desire for peace throughout the world."
I don't know if I agree 100% with him, but I like to see an artist with and actual political point of view, he is taking a strong position and I respect him for that
anyway
"Making war to defend peace, it's like making an orgy to defend virginity"
Tony also said he's going after a younger audience, hence his collabs with newer, younger artist.
The only thing appealing to the younger audience on that album is GaGa. That album as a whole is some schmaltzy, vanilla jazz **** that sounds dated as hell, and most of the artists on there do not appeal to the average younger listener.
