Iraq War Quiz
by Stephen R. Shalom
1. The anti-war movement supports our troops by
urging that they be brought home immediately so they
neither kill nor get killed in a unjust war. How has
the Bush administration shown its support for our
troops?
a. The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee
voted to cut $25 billion in veterans benefits over the
next 10 years.
b. The Bush administration proposed cutting $172
million from impact aid programs that provide school
funding for children of military personnel.
c. The administration ordered the Dept. of Veterans
Affairs to stop publicizing health benefits available
to veterans.
d. All of the above.
2. The anti-war movement believes that patriotism
means urging our country to do what is right. How do
Bush administration officials define patriotism?
a. Patriotism means emulating Dick Cheney, who serves
as Vice-President while receiving $100,000-$1,000,000
a year from Halliburton, the multi-billion dollar
company which is already lining up for major contracts
in post-war Iraq.
b. Patriotism means emulating Richard Perle, the
warhawk who serves as head of the Defense Intelligence
Board while at the same time meeting with Saudi arms
dealer Adnan Khashoggi on behalf of Trireme, a company
of which he is a managing partner, involved in
security and military technologies, and while agreeing
to work as a paid lobbyist for Global Crossing, a
telecommunications giant seeking a major Pentagon
contract.
c. Patriotism means emulating George W. Bush, Dick
Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton,
Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, Lewis Libby, and others who
enthusiastically supported the Vietnam War while
avoiding serving in it and who now are sending others
to kill and be killed in Iraq.
d. All of the above.
3. The Bush administration has accused Saddam Hussein
of lying regarding his weapons of mass destruction.
Which of the following might be considered less than
truthful?
a. Constant claims by the Bush administration that
there was documentary evidence linking Iraq to
attempted uranium purchases in Niger, despite the fact
that the documents were forgeries and CIA analysts
doubted their authenticity.
b. A British intelligence report on Iraq's security
services that was in fact plagiarized, with selected
modifications, from a student article.
c. The frequent citation of the incriminating
testimony of Iraqi defector Hussein Kamel, while
suppressing that part of the testimony in which Kamel
stated that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been
destroyed following the 1991 Gulf War.
d. All of the above.
4. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher stormed
out of a press conference when the assembled reporters
broke into laughter after he declared that the U.S.
would never try to bribe members of the UN. What
should Fleisher have said to defend himself?
a. It wasn't just bribery; we also ordered the
bugging of the home and office phones and emails of
the UN ambassadors of Security Council member states
that were undecided on war.
b. Oh, come on! We've been doing this for years. In
1990 when Yemen voted against authorizing war with
Iraq, the U.S. ambassador declared "That will be the
most expensive 'no' vote you ever cast."
c. Why do you think the Africa Growth and Opportunity
Act makes one of the conditions for an African country
to receive preferential access to U.S. markets that it
"not engage in activities that undermine United States
national security or foreign policy interests"?
d. All of the above.
5. George Bush has declared that "we have no fight
with the Iraqi people." What could he have cited as
supporting evidence?
a. U.S. maintenance of 12 years of crippling
sanctions that strengthened Saddam Hussein while
contributing to the death of hundreds of thousands of
Iraqi civilians.
b. The fact that "coalition" forces have indicated
that they will use cluster bombs in Iraq, despite
warnings from human rights groups that "The use of
cluster munitions in Iraq will endanger civilians for
years to come."
c. By pointing to the analogy of Afghanistan, which
the U.S. pledged not to forget about when the war was
over, and for which the current Bush administration
foreign aid budget request included not one cent in
aid.
d. All of the above.
6. The Bush administration has touted the many
nations that are part of the "coalition of the
willing." Which of the following statements about this
coalition is true?
a. In most of the coalition countries polls show that
a majority, often an overwhelming majority, of the
people oppose the war.
b. More than ten of the members of the coalition of
the willing are actually a coalition of the unwilling
- unwilling to reveal their names.
c. Coalition members - most of whose contributions to
the war are negligible or even zero - constitute less
than a quarter of the countries in the UN and contain
less than 20% of the world's population.
d. All of the above.
7. The war on Iraq is said to be part of the "war on
terrorism." Which of the following is true?
a. A senior American counterintelligence official
said: "An American invasion of Iraq is already being
used as a recruitment tool by Al Qaeda and other
groups... And it is a very effective tool."
b. An American official, based in Europe, said Iraq
had become "a battle cry, in a way," for Al Qaeda
recruiters.
c. France's leading counter-terrorism judge said:
"Bin Laden's strategy has always been to demonstrate
to the Islamic community that the West, and especially
the U.S., is starting a global war against Muslims. An
attack on Iraq might confirm this vision for many
Muslims. I am very worried about the next wave of
recruits."
d. All of the above.
8. The Bush administration says it is waging war to
stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Which
of the following is true?
a. The United States has refused to ratify the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, viewed worldwide as the
litmus test for seriousness about nuclear disarmament.
b. The United States has insisted on a reservation to
the Chemical Weapons Convention allowing the U.S.
President the right to refuse an inspection of U.S.
facilities on national security grounds, and blocked
efforts to improve compliance with the Biological and
Toxin Weapons Convention.
c. Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, Director of the
Defense Intelligence Agency, testified on Feb. 11,
2003, "The long-term trends with respect to WMD and
missile proliferation are bleak. States seek these
capabilities for regional purposes, or to provide a
hedge to deter or offset U.S. military superiority."
d. All of the above.
9. The Bush administration says it wants to bring
democracy to Iraq and the Middle East. Which of the
following is true?
a. If there were democracy in Saudi Arabia today,
backing for the U.S. war effort would be the first
thing to go, given the country's "increasingly
anti-American population deeply opposed to the war."
b. The United States subverted some of the few
democratic governments in the Middle East (Syria in
1949, Iran in 1953), and has backed undemocratic
regimes in the region ever since.
c. The United States supported the crushing of
anti-Saddam Hussein revolts in Iraq in 1991.
d. All of the above.
10. Colin Powell cited as evidence of an Iraq-Al Qaeda
link an audiotape from bin Laden in which he called
Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party regime "infidels."
Which of the following is more compelling evidence?
a. An FBI official told the New York Times: "We've
been looking at this hard for more than a year and you
know what, we just don't think it's there."
b. According to a classified British intelligence
report seen by BBC News, "There are no current links
between the Iraqi regime and the al-Qaeda network."
c. According to Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al
Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, "Since U.S.
intervention in Afghanistan in October 2001, I have
examined several tens of thousands of documents
recovered from Al Qaeda and Taliban sources. In
addition to listening to 240 tapes taken from Al
Qaeda's central registry, I debriefed several Al Qaeda
and Taliban detainees. I could find no evidence of
links between Iraq and Al Qaeda."
d. All of the above.
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