Filmaker Oliver Stone Decries US Addiction To Endless Wars

U.S. Academy Award-winning film director Oliver Stone denounced America's addiction to endless wars and notorious record of interference in other countries' internal affairs.

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"I've talked to a lot of Afghan and Iraq veterans, and there's a tremendous disturbance here going on. The suicide rate is so much higher than ordinary, normal (wars)," Stone, a Vietnam War veteran, said.

He noted that U.S. veterans returning from the Middle East have expressed strong discontent over their country's obsession with endless wars, adding they "know subconsciously or consciously" that they were fed with lies and were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan for "selfish interests," out of mere political considerations.

Stone blasted the U.S. for recently stoking military tensions with Russia over Ukraine, accusing Washington of violating its promise not to expand eastward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He also lashed out at the U.S. military buildup targeting China, which he observed has accelerated since the U.S. "pivot to Asia" strategy in 2012, and at its arms sales to Taiwan.

Besides being a historian, Oliver Stone is world-renowned for directing movies such as Platoon, Wall Street, and Born on the Fourth of July. In his latest documentary, "JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass," he delved into the unanswered mysterious behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

"I'm not sure I'm in charge of this entire government because they're doing things off the shelf... nobody bucks them (the intelligence agencies and the military), nobody challenges them, nobody," the filmmaker said, quoting Kennedy's words.

In his eyes, the country's economy is heavily reliant on its military-industrial complex, and its politics lies in the hands of intelligence agencies and the military. This is due to "the military Keynesian policies coming up right after World War II," which kept U.S. administrations "militarizing the economy, pumping money into weapons" to sustain the economy.

"America has always prepared for war," he said, adding that the United States avoids war only when "there's more money in preparing for war than going to war."