Hill tells students ‘war was a mistake’

The current policy to stay in Iraq is the wrong policy, said Rep. Baron Hill, D-9th, to a mix of students and faculty at a lecture Thursday at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. \n“It is the troops who have performed splendidly, it is the policy-makers who have messed up,” Hill said to the crowd of about 75. \nHill addressed both policy mistakes made by the current administration as well as a new bill that provides hope for an independent Iraq.\nThe bill, passed by both the House and Congress at the end of March, establishes a timetable for troop removal from Iraq, Hill said. \n“The ‘stay the course policy’ that the president wants is the wrong policy,” Hill said. “We have to change. I hope the president will listen.” \nThe bill will ready money for troops as President Bush requested, Hill said. It also requires Bush to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days of the passage of the bill. It sets a nonbinding goal of being out of Iraq within one year. \n“This war was a mistake from the get-go,” Hill said. “Our troops have done everything they can do. We have been there long enough.”\nAmerica has invested $1.5 trillion in the war in Iraq and Hill said it is now time to reinvest that money in the American infrastructure. Hill said funding for domestic programs has been cut “right and left,” while tax cuts have been given to the most wealthy. Hill said this is the first time that tax cuts have ever been granted during wartime.\nWhen asked by a student to discuss policy options if the bill is vetoed, Hill said he did not know the next step if the bill does not succeed. \nHill advocated using the U.S.’s presence in Iraq as “leverage” to encourage the Iraqi people to “take control of their own destiny.” Hill said that the president’s strategy of military solution is not the only solution and that the U.S. should utilize both diplomacy and economic development to force Iraq to become independent. Hill said he thinks troops have done all they can and though it would leave a void to leave Iraq, it can be filled through diplomacy and support from neighboring countries.\n“I don’t think that leaving Iraq would create more loss of respect for us,” he said. “The international community will respect that we left.”\nHill even discussed how he initially voted in support of the president’s entry into Iraq. He said the evidence he was presented with was “compelling,” though he now considers it a “lie.” \n“I regret that vote very much,” Hill said. “I wish I had it back.”