WEB EXCLUSIVE: Oscar Winner Jon Voight on Iraq

By Melissa Charbonneau

CBN News White House Correspondent

September 15, 2007

CBNNews.com - In an exclusive interview with actor Jon Voight, Melissa Charbonneau talked with the Academy Award winner about the war in Iraq, parallels to Vietnam, and his visits with the wounded. The father of actress Angelina Jolie, Voight won an Oscar for Best Actor in the Vietnam War drama Coming Home and also starred in The Champ, Glory Road, Midnight Cowboy, and Deliverance. Voight has visited injured troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital on three occasions, and the Navy hospital at Balboa in San Diego.

Click on the video player and see what Voight has to say about Iraq and the American media.

Voight on the Search for Power: The war is politicized, and, unfortunately, a whole group of people have wanted, have staked their search for power, on this event. And as we can certainly see without too much difficulty, they're betting against us winning in Iraq. Iraq's very important. Anyone who knows anything about the situation over there -- and what we're facing with this culture there and the Arab states, and the chaos that they not only perpetrated, but the suffering of the people in those communities over there -- they need to have other answers. Now when I say that I don't mean that all Arabs are a problem. I'm just talking about this extremism that has been brewing over there for a long time.

Voight on Prey to Propaganda: We must win in Iraq. It is absolutely essential that we win in Iraq. And can we win? We certainly can win militarily. The only thing that can defeat us is propaganda. And when I watch what is being said in Congress, I see that these people are falling prey to the cunning use of propaganda by our enemy who are very well attuned to the mood of the country or the kind of citizenry we have.

We are being played like an instrument. They know exactly how to reach Americans' hearts. They know we are generous and our hearts go out to people, so they portray themselves as being victims, and they just know exactly what to say.

Voight on Being Played: So then you see all these people talking to Petraeus yesterday - General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. I don't want to say these guys - you know, I have tremendous respect for these guys - and you see where these guys are saying, well, that this statistic is this and this and this. If you really search all of those questions that are inlaid with all these facts, but the facts are composed of anonymous stuff from Op-Ed pages that are. Who's anonymous? Who sent this stuff in? Where are they getting their statistics from? They are being played.

Voight Says War Can Be Won: I talk to the guys often. And the amazing thing about these guys is that they're all very positive. These are wounded soldiers now. They all are positive. They all know they were born to do this. They all know this war can be won, and they want to get the politics out of it. And they say the generals know what they're doing, just let us do our work. This is what they're saying.

Voight on Troop Talk: It gives them anxiety to hear this kind of stuff, which is not patriotic. It dampens their spirits, but it cannot really bring them down because they give us support. When I go there, I feel better from having been with them and stronger from having talked with them.

Voight on 60's-Style Manipulation: I went through the '60s, so I suppose that's my badge of experience. I've seen this kind of manipulation of ideas before. And I know where it comes from. And I know how people pass on quotes and do this kind of stuff, and how they just get into a mode of things where they just think they trust their fellows in the business. And they don't check things out. And they're not thorough. And they just go forth. And they get a mindset. They're programming each other all the time.

Voight Says it's No Vietnam: I have to say this is not Vietnam. This is certainly not going to stay within the border. If this is unleashed, the problems there. If this breaks down, and there's more instability and it's filled in by the people from Iran, the enemies we have in Iran, and this becomes ground for al-Qaeda and the terrorists, this is a huge loss to us tactically in this war, and, of course, a huge loss in terms of the world understanding our staying power. Right now we just had the taunt from Osama bin Laden. "These are weak people," he's saying. "They will not stay the distance." And why does he say that? Because they examined us in Vietnam. We didn't stay the distance.

Voight Qutoes General Jiap: I'm going to read something from General Jiap, who was the highest ranking and most respected military officer in North Vietnam against us, and this is from his memoirs. And this is also to be found in the Vietnam War Memorial right now.

''What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender. It defeated us. It was the same at the battles of Tet. You defeated us. But we were, we knew it and we thought you knew it, but we were elated to notice your media were definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won."

Voight on a Weak America: What would have happened if we had won and they had surrendered? Today they would be a free society. Right? What happened? Because of the media and because of these young people who were running around raising their fists, using every kind of propaganda that was fed to them, or what they invented. We turned our backs on the people of South Vietnam. We did not support them. We did not honor our own peace accord in Paris. We didn't even provide them with ammunition. The result is that two-and-a-half million people were murdered. This was a very disturbing and dark time for America. Not a proud time at all.

And Osama bin Laden - when he talks to us - is talking from the knowledge of that time. That if you hit Americans with the proper propaganda, which is you can see, what's happening - and you make them fight a long war, they will turn their backs and give up. The American people will pull out. That's why he said we are weak.

Pulled Out and Forgotten: You can see it. It's being played out in front of you. And now then you say well, why don't we see that? Well we're not students of history most of us. When we go even in our schools what are we taught. We're taught a page or two, George Washington did this, you know. He had false teeth. He threw a dollar across the Potomac. Whatever we're getting, we're not getting enough for us to see where we are right now, how this is reflected in our past. We certainly don't learn much about the Vietnam war.

And by the way, the Vietnam war is mistaught because the thing I just told you about is not widely known, see? So if you look up the Paris Accords, yeah, Vietnam, Paris Accords, Nixon whatever it is. How we made a deal. How we said we'd protect them against the North Vietnamese if they attacked, and we didn't, of course. And we just pulled out and forgot them.

Voight Says Give 'em Time: When you see the gains that are happening now in Iraq, you see what Gen. Petraeus is reporting, how the sheiks are coming around now to us. And why are they coming around now to us? Because they see us as the victors. They see the victory is in our camp now. Well it will be if we continue to support the troops it will stay there. We will take care of business and the Iraq people will be able to fight and defend their own freedoms. They're just a beginning democracy now. Look at us after 200 something years, and look what's going on in our Congress. And we're saying these people are divided. What about us, you know?

Voight and Troop Talk: I recommend that you guys all spend time with our soldiers. And you don't have to go very far to see the depth of character in this generation. And one of the reasons people are coming around is that you're seeing the quality of the al-Qaeda fighters and those people who are part of the insurrection, and the quality of our people taking care of the Iraqi people and their kids, and stuff like that. And they're able to compare, and that's a lot of what's happening

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