Truthout Convention Coverage begins: Iraq Veterans Against the War [View All]

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.truthout.org/dnc04.shtml

Saturday 24 July 2004
7:25PM

When I got to the Vets for Peace convention, there was a barrel-chested man absolutely collapsing with laughter in the lobby outside the speaking hall. "You won't believe it!" he shouted to a friend by the door. "I got promoted! I got a letter in the mail! I'm a corporal now!"

I didn't get the joke at the time, but that was because I had not yet been properly introduced to Michael Hoffman, the barrel-chested newly-minted corporal, who is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and now the founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War (www.ivaw.net). I was able to speak with Mr. Hoffman later in the afternoon. I

PITT: First off, what is your name?

HOFFMAN: My name is Michael Hoffman.

PITT: You were involved in the most recent invasion of Iraq?

HOFFMAN: Yes. I crossed into Iraq in March 2003, when the invasion began, and left Iraq at the beginning of May.

PITT: What branch of the service were you in?

HOFFMAN: I served with the United States Marines, in the 1st Marine Division. I was part of an artillery battery.

PITT: And now you're a corporal.

HOFFMAN: (laughing) Yes. Surprise, surprise.

PITT: Tell me why you are here at the Veterans for Peace convention in Boston?

HOFFMAN: I'm here representing the Iraq war veterans. Myself and five other Iraq war veterans are here to represent to people what the war was about, to tell the truth about what was going on over there.

PITT: What is the truth, from your experience?

HOFFMAN: The truth, from my experience, is that the war was based on lies.

PITT: Did you know that when you were over there?

HOFFMAN: I did. I looked at the reasons for the war, I looked at the proof, and what was coming out in the press, and by that time I had educated myself about what was going on in the world. I didn't just look at the U.S. press, I looked at the international press, and I looked at the independent media. I felt the reasons for war weren't there.

PITT: Was it tough for you to go, knowing what you knew?

HOFFMAN: It was. It was really tough. And it wasn't just me. My own battery first sergeant - someone with 20 years experience in the Marine Corps - knew what this meant. He'd been in the first Gulf War also. Before we went to Iraq, he addressed all the enlisted men in the unit, about 100 of us. He said, "Don't think you're going to be heroes. You're not going over there because of weapons of mass destruction. You're not going there to get rid of Saddam Hussein, or to make Iraq safe for democracy. You're going there for one reason and one reason alone: Oil."

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