Congressional hopeful talks about Iraq War at meeting

Democratic challenger to incumbent Mike Sodrel and 9th District Congressional hopeful Baron Hill hosted a town hall meeting Saturday to discuss the Medicare Part D program and prescription drug coverage, but some community members had other topics in mind.\nOrganizers from the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition sent a media release Friday encouraging community members to ask former-Congressman Hill if elected again he would: one, commit to work to end the "illegal, immoral" war and occupation in Iraq by supporting "Out of Iraq" Congressional initiatives like House Concurrent Resolution 35; and two, commit to reject any and all U.S. military threats against Iran.\nOnly seconds after Hill opened the floor to questions, the conversation was redirected from Medicare Part D to the war in Iraq. Hill voted "yes" in October 2002 to give President Bush the authority to wage war on Iraq even though no Congressional declaration of war was ever signed.\n"I get testy when I talk about this," Hill said. "I now know I was lied to."\nHill admitted he considered not coming to Bloomington because of the BPAC plan to discuss the loss of about 2,500 U.S. soldiers and up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians.\nHill told the crowd he was summoned to the Pentagon with other Congressional leaders to hear classified information regarding Saddam Hussein's suspected terrorism efforts. He said he felt Saddam was a bad guy but that he was not a direct threat to the United States.\nHill said he was then shown a slide show presentation, led by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, that included photos of drone airplanes and pictures of nuclear centrifuges. He said Rumsfeld told the Congressional leaders Iraq intended to use the drone aircraft to deliver chemical and nuclear weapons.\nBased on that presentation Hill said he voted to authorize President Bush to do what was necessary to reduce the threat Iraq posed to America.\n"I found out four months later that was all a lie. It was made up," Hill said. "It was a deliberate, intentional lie to Congress." \nHill then called on further American patience in regards to bringing the troops home because Iraq is still unstable and the country is teetering on the brink of a full-blown civil war.\n"Now what to do we do?" Hill asked. "I'm not there yet on an immediate withdrawal. I have two images of Iraq in my brain: women with purple fingers and the mosque blown up by al-Zarqawi. The Iraqi people want democracy."\nBPAC organizer Timothy Baer raised his hand, and after Hill called on him Baer showed the former-Congressman pictures of dead Iraqi children.\n"Your images are all nice and well but these are the ones who are affected by the war," he said before the crowd erupted into applause. "It is the children who have committed no crime but to be born in Iraq."\nAbout eight of the 30 or so town hall attendees were interested in discussing the Iraq war more than the Medicare Part D Program and prescription drug coverage. About 45 of the 90 town hall minutes were dedicated to hashing -- and rehashing -- whether or not Hill understood and appreciated the concerns brought to his attention by some members of his local constituency.\n"There is a world outside of Bloomington," Hill said. "Most people in my district want to see if we can make (Iraq) happen."\nNot all the Hoosiers in attendance appreciated the repeated redirection of town hall discussion and some community members voiced their disapproval with grunts, sighs and vocal berating when the opportunity to speak arose.\nRedirecting the town hall discussion from both the prescription drug plan and the War in Iraq, some community members strayed into other areas of health consciousness. One person asked about the plight of American topsoil and another person addressed a national lack of healthy food.\nOne community member, who described himself as a local physician, asked why Congress was debating national health care without addressing a national lack of exercise and the poor quality of cheap food consumed in the United States in relation to eventual negative health outcomes that need an abundance of prescription medicine to counteract.\nRep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., who attended the event with Hill, summed up both the opposition to the Medicare Plan D program and the War in Iraq by asking community members to support Hill this November in helping vote Republicans out of office and out of power in Washington. He called the current Congressional climate an environment to preserve and protect the rich by making them richer.\n"If you always do what you've always done," Berry said, "you will always get what you've always got ... If we are going to become and continue to be a great nation, we have to have a change of leadership in Congress"