Acclaimed screen star DUSTIN HOFFMAN has slammed US President GEORGE W BUSH for manipulating the 9/11 terrorist attacks to facilitate the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
The RAIN MAN actor now feels "self-conscious" about being American because he can understand why the nation has become a focus for resentment around the world.
He says, "I think that the administration manipulated the grief of 9/11. They did it then and they do it now.
"Everybody knows why they wanted to go into Iraq and it had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction.
"I'm an American and it's not a good feeling. When Americans say, 'I don't know why they hate us so much,' that's an uneducated response.
"There are lots of reasons why we're hated."