A panel discussion of war veterans on the University of Wisconsin campus became a little more contentious than planned Tuesday, resulting in police removal of an anti-war activist.

The UW College Republicans brought the panel together at Grainger Hall to discuss referendums in cities and towns across the state — including Madison — to "bring all military personnel home from Iraq now."

Members of the UW Stop the War! movement attended the meeting to voice their support of the referendum. However, when Stop the War! member Chris Dols became too "disruptive," two UW police officers asked him to leave.

"It is a little hypocritical for them to publicly denounce Stop the War! when they won't even debate us," Dols said.

However, College Republicans Chair Jordan Smith defended the formation of the panel.

"It was a 'vote no' panel, so we wanted all panel members advocating 'vote no,'" Smith said.

The panel consisted of Marine Kevin Lewis, Army soldier Greg Seidlitz, Army Reservist Mike Hahn, and Bill Richardson, treasurer of the "Vote No to Cut and Run" organization.

The overall opinion of the panelists was that they love the people of Iraq, and that the response from Americans has been overwhelmingly positive since returning home.

"The response has been very good to me," Hahn said. "People have been kind, polite and gracious when I tell them that I am a veteran."

Hahn added that he was "a little bit surprised" when he heard that the referendum was on the ballot.

Lewis echoed Hahn's sentiment, saying that it "broke his heart" that Madison was considering passing this referendum.

The panelists also all agreed that if American troops immediately withdrew from Iraq it would not be good for the Iraqi people.

"If we leave tomorrow, the country will go back to hell in a hand-basket," Seidlitz said.

There are currently 130,000 troops in Iraq and, according to Richardson, it would be "chaos" if they were pulled out now.

"If we pull out of Iraq right now, the terrorists win," Richardson said.

The dialogue went back and forth for a majority of the meeting on whether or not the troops should leave.

"We are all for getting these soldiers out of harm's way," Dols said. "I want you and all your friends home."

This was one of the only topics that the two sides agreed on during the meeting.

The College Republicans set up the "Vote No" panel to educate students on their views on the issue. Dols requested to be on the panel but was denied because he had views opposing the College Republicans' stance.

Dols and his constituents came into the meeting and called the College Republicans "cowards" for not debating him, which set off a yelling match between the panelists and Dols.

Despite the differing opinions, Smith said she thought the meeting went well.

"It is good for debate and discourse," she said.

She said she decided ahead of time that debate between the two sides would not be productive, however, as she said a "token conservative" at a Stop the War! meeting would just be "shouted down" and "attacked."