Hoffman opposes war and accuses Bush of manipulating grief of US after 9/11

ACTOR Dustin Hoffman has become the latest US star to voice his opposition to war with Iraq.

Mr Hoffman accused the Bush administration of "manipulating the grief of the country" after the events of September 11.

More than 100 Hollywood stars have already voiced their opposition to any US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein.

President George W Bush's real motives for going to war are power and oil, Mr Hoffman said.

"For me as an American, the most painful aspect of this is that I believe that that administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country and I think that's reprehensible," he said.

"I don't think, like many of us, that the reasons we have been given for going to war are the honest reasons.

"If they are saying it's about the fact they have biological weapons and might have nuclear weapons and that gives us the liberty to pre-empt and strike because we think they might hit us, then what prevents Pakistan from attacking India, what prevents India from attacking Pakistan, what prevents us from going into North Korea?

"I believe though I may wrong because I am no expert that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil."

Mr Hoffman, speaking on Wednesday night at the Empire film awards where he picked up the life-time achievement prize, pointed out that the US had once funded Saddam Hussein's regime even as he killed tens of thousands of Kurds. He added that he believed all politicians were incapable of telling the truth. "If I was asked what is the most important aspect of being a politician, I would say getting re-elected. And when that's the goal, then all bets are off with the truth."

Other celebrities such as Steve Earle, Bonnie Raitt, Yoko Ono, Oliver Stone, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Robert Altman, Lord of the Ring's Viggo Mortensen and Irish actress Roma Downey, have all lent their names to the anti-war group, Not In Our Name.

More than 40,000 people have signed the group's "Statement of Conscience."

Recently, the group took out advertisements in national US newspapers decrying not only a war in Iraq, but the creep of US imperialism, the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive assault and the erosion of civil liberties in the name of national security. George Clooney, Susan Sarandon and Gangs Of New York director Martin Scorsese have also voiced misgivings over Mr Bush's policy.

Speaking on the PBS television network in January, Mr Clooney said Mr Bush and his cabinet were behaving like Tony Soprano and his mobster family in the TV show.

Mr Clooney accused the president of cutting a deal with France and Russia to ensure the UN Security Council will not complain when "we go into a war and kill a lot of innocent people."

Mr Scorsese said many Americans were cynical about the White House's true motives.

"There are a lot of Americans who feel that this is economic and part of it has to do with the oil, maybe most of it," he told the BBC last month.

In December, screen stars including Samuel L Jackson, the West Wing's Martin Sheen, Matt Damon, X-Files stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny and the REM rock group endorsed a declaration against a pre-emptive strike on Iraq.

At the launch of Artists United to Win Without War, in a Los Angeles cafe used for film industry parties, the performers said they were alarmed at the Bush administration's intolerance which they said was stifling debate on a war.

But many US stars are still reluctant to voice their opinions, however, fearing they will be labelled "anti-American."

When actor Sean Penn visited Baghdad last December, he was careful to say he was there "to learn, not to teach."

Last October, Barbra Streisand was excoriated for a speech at a Democratic party fundraiser for incorrectly attributing a quote "Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war" to Shakespeare.