Tony Bennett on 9/11: 'We Caused It'

Tony Bennett is pushing a new album, but it's comments he made during a Howard Stern interview yesterday that are drawing attention, reports ABC News. A conversation about Bennett's WWII service led to Stern asking Bennett how the US should deal with terrorists. “But who are the terrorists?" Bennett asked. "Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right." When Stern noted that terrorists attacked the US with planes, the 85-year-old singer replied, “They flew the plane in, but we caused it. Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop.”

The avowed pacifist also called the Iraqi war a "tremendous, tremendous mistake" and recounted a conversation he had with President George W. Bush in 2005: “He told me personally that night that, he said, ‘I think I made a mistake.'" Here's a sample of the criticism emerging today, from NewsBusters. Mediaite has audio of the Sirius interview. Click for more. (More Tony Bennett stories.)