Sunday's Oscars was an opportunity for Hollywood stars to slam President George W. Bush and the Iraq invasion. The first salvo came from master of ceremonies Billy Crystal, who opened the show with a reminder about the first Oscar show he hosted 13 years ago.

"Everything was so different," the comic said. "Bush was president, the economy was tanking and we'd just finished a war with Iraq." Of course, he was referring to the current president's father, the first Gulf War and the economic downturn in 1991.

Crystal was not the only one taking shots. Director Errol Morris, who won an Oscar for his Vietnam war documentary "The Fog of War," compared the Vietnam conflict with Iraq. "Forty years ago this country went down a rabbit hole, and I fear we're going down a rabbit hole once again," said Morris, who was visibly moved. -AFP