I'm galled at Hayao Miyazaki

Past political stupidity time: Anime director Hayao Miyazaki wouldn't come to the 2003 Academy Awards ceremony, and 6 years later, he explained why:

“The reason I wasn’t here for the Academy Award was because I didn’t want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq,” he said. “At the time, my producer shut me up and did not allow me to say that, but I don’t see him around today. By the way, my producer also shared in that feeling.”

I would surmise his producer was embarrassed, and with good reason. Movie award ceremonies are no place for politics, personal or otherwise.

We'll let the following reader comment sum this all up:

I love Miyazaki and his films, and I couldn't be more excited to see Ponyo, but this was just a dumb thing to say. I still have respect for Miyazaki and his wonderful films, but it's a shame when it comes to this subject Miyazaki has no idea what he's talking about. It would be one thing f he was anti-war, but to say something like "I won't visit the country that's bombing Iraq" just comes off as ignorant and childish.
We saw a little anti-war theme in Howl's Moving Castle (unfortunately), but it didn't come off as offensive like this does.
Iraq was a country where woman were treated like dirt, and people found any excuse to stone them, it was a country where children were taut to hate everyone and everything that doesn't look and think like them. Iraq was a country that thrived on hatred and lived on intolerance. But now they are able to do things they once could never dream of, like vote. They have more freedom now then they ever did before the U.S.'s so called "invasion." So was it really that bad of a thing, the Iraq war? Not when you think of the progress Iraq has made.
I just hope a wonderful mind like Miyazaki's doesn't become one of those "politically obsessed" filmmakers who starts throwing in an agenda in his films, because if that were to happen, the world will have lost the grea**** wonder the world of film has seen since Walt Disney.

Well if you've ever read Marc Eliot's research (see also this article for more), you'll see why Disney wasn't exactly a big loss himself either. But looking back at the premises of some of Miyazaki's own anime films, including Princess Mononoke, they do seem to have a big problem with an inability to take sides, signaling Miyazaki's got a problem with moral equations.

If there's any anime specialist we needn't make too big a fuss over, I guess it'd be Miyazaki. A shame he can't appreciate when a democratic country does its best to rid the world of autocratic tyrants like Saddam.