Congressman Mike Pence forged his case for an Iraqi war at a town hall meeting that focused more on the Middle East than on Muncie.
At the beginning of Tuesday's meeting, Pence announced that a $397.4 billion spending bill Congress recently passed included $1 million for a Ball State initiative, the Midwest Entrepreneurial Education Center.
The center, Pence said, would serve as an incubator. Students and the community could work together to research issues relating to entrepreneurship, he said.
But the conversation quickly traveled to Iraq and accusations of weapons of mass destruction -- accusations, Pence said, that need no further proof.
United Nations Resolution 1441 requires Saddam Hussein to disarm and disclose all weapons or face severe consequences. Hussein, however, has yet to reveal all weapons, including thousands of ballistic missiles, Pence said.
"Iraq's guilt is not subject to debate," he said. "I am loathe to wait until the day until another one of our cities is wriggling under the weight of another terrorist attack.
"There are a plethora of nations that have demonstrated what the notion of disarmament and disclosure is. We know what disclosure and disarmament is."
Pence's stance eventually elicited calls for proof from Ball State associate professor Frank Trechsel. Trechsel, the most vocal critic Tuesday, said President George W. Bush should provide more evidence of weapons before inciting war.
"All we have right now are allegations and suspicions," Trechsel said.
Trechsel also argued against using Resolution 1441 for justification. Dozens of nations, he said, violate U.N. resolutions, including the United States. Why should this violation lead to war, he asked.
But Pence said that, as a representative, he has more access to information and knows the proof exists, but he didn't give any details.
Pence also met with Secretary of State Colin Powell last Wednesday when Powell testified before the House International Relations Committee, which Pence serves on.
In fact, Pence cited Powell's testimony several times as he made his arguments.
Others that night were more concerned about the outcome of the war than they were the reasons. Two people said they were afraid an attack might incite more terrorist attacks.
In order to stop any terrorist backlash, Pence said, the American government would need to follow the war with a "flood of relief." The government would need to help rebuild roads and hospitals, he said, and it would also have to stop the government-run media and its anti-American sentiment.
Also during the meeting, Pence rebutted charges that the Patriot Act was the "tremendous blow to freedom" lamented by David Costello, one of the meeting's attendants.
Costello, citing a Republican congressman from Texas and a New York Times editorial, said no one in the House of Representatives read the Patriot Act before passing it. Instead, Costello said, they were overcome by a herd mentality.
"I grew up on a farm, and I saw what happened when a herd stampeded," Costello said, "but in Washington, it wasn't a herd, but congressmen."
Pence, however, was familiar with the accusation.
"I've heard that twice in my district, and it irritated me both times," Pence said.
The act, Pence said, was born in the House Judiciary Committee, which Pence joined just before committee members created the Act.
"I didn't read it (the Patriot Act). I wrote it.," Pence said.
Pence will follow this town hall meeting with similar forums in Anderson, Richmond, Rushville and other communities.
Pence will be traveling the state as 20,000 more Army troops prepare to travel to the Persian Gulf, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Deployment orders signed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over the weekend will send the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and several smaller units to the area around Iraq, where they will join about 150,000 other U.S. forces already in the region.
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