Madonna calls for end to war

This Is London and The Scotsman report about the Madonna interview today on BBC Radio2 selecting the moments with a stronger political content:

Madonna today called on the US to withdraw its troops from Iraq. The former Material Girl is known for her anti-war views – her recent tour
featured images of children orphaned by war.

Today she told Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show: “I just don’t want American troops to be in Iraq, period. My feelings are ‘can we just all get out?”‘

The 46-year-old pop star said: “Global terror is everywhere. Global terror is down the street, around the block. Global terror is in California. There’s global terror everywhere and it’s absurd to think you can get it by going to one country and dropping tons of bombs on innocent people.”

Some critics have attacked the singer, who lives in London with director husband Guy Ritchie, for not speaking out in the run-up to the conflict. The Kabbalah devotee famously pulled the controversial anti-war video for her American Life single following the outbreak of war.

Today she said: “In the end it’s great when anybody gets involved with what is going on in the world, whether it’s Republican or Democrat. It’s just really boring that everybody sits back and lets somebody else take charge.

“You don’t have any right to complain when that happens and it’s nice to see that people in the entertainment world care about what is happening outside of their careers.” She said American society was “becoming very divided”. “People are becoming very polarised,” she said. “We have people who don’t want to think, and who just want to guard what is theirs, and they’re selfish and limited in their thinking and they’re very fearful in their choices.”

She also said the idea that Americans voted for George Bush in the presidential election over moral issues was “spin”.

Madonna had backed General Wesley Clark to stand as the Democrat candidate. She said: ?I thought very carefully about it. I thought Wesley Clark had the best leadership qualities. If he had the same political experience as Kerry he could have bridged that gap.
“But he was too naive in those areas. He didn?t know how to deal with political situations the way that Kerry did, but he was much better suited to be a leader.

Source: This Is London/The Scotsman/PA News