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 which 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.
Answers and Sources
1. d
(a) Cong. Lane Evans, "Veterans Programs Slashed by House Republicans,
" Press Release, 3/13/03,
http://www.veterans.house.gov/democratic/press/108th/3-13-03budget.htm.
(b) Brian Faler, "Educators Angry Over Proposed Cut in Aid;
Many Children in Military Families Would Feel Impact,"
Washington Post, 3/19/03, p. A29.
(c) See Veterans' for Common Sense, letter to George W. Bush, 3/20/03
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/print.asp?id=563;
Melissa B. Robinson, "Hospitals Face Budget Crunch," Associated Press,
7/31/02; Jason Tait, "Veterans angered by marketing ban,"
Eagle-Tribune (Lawrence, MA), 8/2/02,
http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20020802/FP_003.htm
2. d
(a) Warren Vieth and Elizabeth Douglass, " Ousting Hussein could open the
door for U.S. and British firms. French, Russian and Chinese rivals
would lose their edge," Los Angeles Times, 3/12/03, p. I:1;
Robert Bryce and Julian Borger, "Halliburton: Cheney is still paid by
Pentagon contractor, Bush deputy gets Dollars 1m from firm with Iraq
oil deal," Guardian (London), 3/12/03, p. 5 (which notes that Halliburton
"would not say how much the payments are; the obligatory disclosure
statement filled by all top government officials says only that they
are in the range of" $100,000 and $1 million.
(b) Seymour M. Hersh, "Lunch with the Chairman," New Yorker, 3/16/03;
Stephen Labaton, "Pentagon Adviser Is Also Advising Global Crossing,"
NYT, 3/21/03, p. C1. Perle is to be paid $725,000 for his lobbying
effort, including $600,000 if his lobbying is successful.
(c) New Hampshire Gazette, "The Chickenhawks,"
http://nhgazette.com/chickenhawks.html.
3. d
(a) See the evidence collected in Cong. Henry Waxman's letter to George W.
Bush, 3/17/03,
http://www.house.gov/waxman/text/admin_iraq_march_17_let.htm.
(b) See Glen Rangwala's report, http://traprockpeace.org/britishdossier.html.
(c) See Glen Rangwala's report, http://traprockpeace.org/kamel.html.
4. d
(a) Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy, and Peter Beaumont, The Observer
(London), 3/2/03.
(b) Quoted in Phyllis Bennis, Calling the Shots: How Washington
Dominates Today's UN, New York: Olive Branch, 1996, p. 33.
(c) Sarah Anderson, Phyllis Bennis, and John Cavanagh, Coalition
of the Willing or Coalition of the Coerced?: How The Bush Administration
Influences Allies in Its War on Iraq, Washington, DC: Institute for
Policy Studies, 2/26/03, p. 4.
5. d
(a) For background, see Anthony Arnove, ed., Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly
Impact of Sanctions and War, Cambridge: South End Press, updated ed. 2003.
(b) Paul Waugh, "Labour MPs Attack Hoon After He Reveals That British Forces
Will Use Cluster Bombs," Independent, 3/21/03, p. 4; Human Rights
Watch, Press Release, 3/18/03: "Persian Gulf: U.S. Cluster Bomb Duds A
Threat; Warning Against Use of Cluster Bombs in Iraq."
(c) Zvi Bar'el, "Flaws in the Afghan Model," Ha'aretz, 3/14/03,
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?
itemNo=272884.
6. d
(a) See, for example, the revealing comment of Secretary of State Powell:
"We need to knock down this idea that nobody is on our side. So many
nations recognize this danger [of Iraq's weapons]. And they do it in
the face of public opposition." Quoted in Steven R. Weisman With Felicity
Barringer, "Urgent Diplomacy Fails To Gain U.S. 9 Votes In The U.N."
NYT, 3/10/03, p. A1)
(b) U.S. Dept. of State, Daily Press Briefing, Richard Boucher, Washington,
DC, 3/18/03.
(c) Country list: White House, Statement of Support from Coalition, 3/25/03,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/print/20030325-8.html;
population calculated from Statistical Abstract of the United States,
2001, Washington, DC: 2001, table 1327. Total includes USA.
The White House list includes countries whose leaders have done no more
than state their support for the United States, and the listing changes
from day to day, with some countries being added and some removed.
7. d
(a) Don Van Natta Jr. and Desmond Butler,
"Anger On Iraq Seen As New Qaeda Recruiting Tool," NYT, 3/16/03, p. I:1.
(b) Van Natta and Butler, NYT, 3/16/03.
(c) Van Natta and Butler, NYT, 3/16/03.
8. d
(a) Colum Lynch, "U.S. Boycotts Nuclear Test Ban Meeting; Some Delegates
at U.N. Session Upset at Latest Snub of Pact Bush Won't Back,"
Washington Post, 11/12/02, p. A6.
(b) Amy E. Smithson, "U.S. Implementation of the CWC," in Jonathan B. Tucker,
The Chemical Weapons Convention: Implementation Challenges and
Solutions, Monterey Institute, April 2001, pp. 23-29, h
<http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/tuckcwc.htm>
ttp://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/tuckcwc.htm;
Jonathan Tucker, "The Fifth Review Conference of the Biological and
Toxin Weapons Convention," Feb. 2002,
http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_7b.html.
(c) Testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, excerpted
at http://traprockpeace.org/usefulquotesoniraq.html.
9. d
(a) Craig S. Smith, "Saudi Arabia Seems Calm But, Many Say, Is Seething,"
NYT, 3/24/03, p. B13. In fact, "Though the Saudi government officially
denies it, the bombing campaign is being directed from Saudi Arabia -
something that few Saudis realize."
(b) On Syria, see Douglas Little, ACold War and Covert Action: The United
States and Syria, 1945 >1958,@ Middle East Journal, vol. 44, no. 1,
Winter 1990, pp. 55 57. On Iran, see Mark J. Gasiorowski, "The 1953
Coup D'Etat in Iran," International Journal of Middle East Studies,
vol. 19, Aug. 1987, pp. 261-86.
(c) Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn, Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection
of Saddam Hussein, New York: HarperPerennial. 1999, chap. 1.
10. d
(re audiotape, see David Johnston, "Top U.S. Officials Press Case
Linking Iraq To Al Qaeda," NYT, 2/12/03, p. A1; Mohamad Bazzi,
"U.S. says bin Laden tape urging Iraqis to attack appears real,"
Newsday, 2/12/03, p. A5.
(a) James Risen and David Johnston, "Split at C.I.A. and F.B.I.
On Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda," NYT, 2/2/03, p. I:13.
(b) "Leaked Report Rejects Iraqi al-Qaeda Link," BBC News, 2/5/03.
(c) Rohan Gunaratna, "Iraq and Al Qaeda: No Evidence of Alliance,"
International Herald Tribune, 2/19/03.
Interpreting Your Score
9-10 Correct: Excellent. Contact United for Peace and Justice,
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/, and work to fight the war
and the system that produced it.
6-8 Correct: Fair. You've been watching a few too many former generals
and government officials who provide the "expert" commentary for the
mainstream media. Read the alternative media!
3-5 Correct: Poor. Don't feel bad. George W. Bush only got a C-
in International Relations at College.
0-2 Correct: Failing. You have a bright future as an "embedded" journalist.
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