Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson knows what it is like to be under scrutiny from the government.

Wilson has been at the center of the contentious issue involving forged intelligence, a botched war and the first CIA operative in history to be outed by his or her own government – his wife Valerie Plame.

Wilson spoke Wednesday night in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Wilson’s lecture was titled, “Dissent in Democracy.”

“We were lied into this war, but we are where we are. There is indeed a failure in Iraq. We are policing someone else’s civil war,” Wilson said.

Before speaking, Wilson greeted an already warm audience by signing autographs and shaking hands. Wilson then delved into details of the event that has been on Americans’ minds since 2003 – the Iraq war. Wilson rallied against the reasonings of the war, beginning with defining the task that the government asked the armed forces to accomplish.

“[Colin Powell told me] ‘I’d like to know what the mission is before I talk about a troop surge,'” Wilson said.

The tenets of patriotism and civil duty, were central themes that reoccurred throughout the evening. Wilson said the government had committed a disservice to the armed forces by misdirection of patriotism, and by “killing Sunni and killing Shiite, not protecting Sunni or Shiite.”

“Supporting the troops is more than buying a yellow ribbon for the back of your car,” Wilson said.

Wilson went on to speak about the results of his debates with certain representatives leading up to the invasion of Iraq, such as from former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who told Wilson in front of an audience in Midland, Texas, that “experience in the region [of Iraq] is highly overrated,” and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who called Wilson an “appeaser.”

Wilson wrote a 1,500-word article in 2003 to The New York Times that said the intelligence Wilson had found contradicted what the government was saying at the time.

This article, he said, led to his wife’s name being leaked in Robert Novak’s syndicated column, detailing that Wilson was sent by Plame on a junket to embassies to collect information in 1999, although certain declassified documents show Wilson clearly showing dissent.

“What happens when you get up and say, ‘this isn’t the best policy we’ve ever had’?” Wilson said on the topic of the leak.

Wilson concluded his speech by saying his article “was an act of citizenship,” and that he would do it all again.

John Hauptman, professor of physics and astronomy, attended the lecture and said he really enjoyed the speech.

“I thought it was an excellent talk, very experienced. He sees things clearly,” Hauptman said.