RW ONLINE: The New RW Current Events Pop Quiz on Iraq\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt's Fun! It's Easy! Take It at Home!\r\nThe New RW Current Events Pop Quiz on Iraq\r\n<\/p>
Revolutionary Worker #1186, February 9, 2003<\/i>, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\r\n
Boys & Girls! Are you bored with the current events class at school? \r\nParents and Teachers! Do you have trouble getting children to pay attention? \r\nWe're not surprised. So, our educational experts have devised a special pop quiz \r\nso easy and accessible that even President Bush could do it! Well, okay, not \r\nthat <\/i>easy... but still, pretty <\/i>easy. C'mon, it's all multiple \r\nchoice. Plus, our easy scoring system even gives credit for some wrong answers! \r\nSo, sharpen your pencil, find a comfy chair, and get ready to take...<\/p>\r\n
The New RW Current Events Pop Quiz on Iraq<\/b><\/p>\r\n<\/b>
I. He Said She Said, or Quotes in the News<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Can you guess who said the following quotes, what they were talking \r\nabout, and who they were talking to?<\/p>\r\n
1. \"Throughout the 20th Century, small groups of men seized control of \r\ngreat nations, built armies and arsenals, and set out to dominate the weak and \r\nintimidate the world. In each case, their ambitions of cruelty and murder had no \r\nlimit.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) Gandalf talking to Frodo about Sauron.<\/p>\r\n
B) Benzino writing in The Source <\/i>about Dre and Eminem.<\/p>\r\n
C) George W. Bush talking to his cabinet about what he's trying to do and how \r\nhe aims to do it.<\/p>\r\n
D) Don Corleone talking to Michael about the plots of the Barzini and \r\nTattaglia families.<\/p>\r\n
E) George W. Bush talking to Congress about Saddam Hussein in his State of \r\nthe Union Address.<\/p>\r\n
2. \"Your enemy is ruling your country.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) George W. Bush telling the antiwar movement about his plans for \r\nIraq.<\/p>\r\n
B) George W. Bush talking to an audience of Black people, and other people of \r\ncolor, explaining his decision to oppose affirmative action.<\/p>\r\n
C) George W. Bush speaking to an audience of women, explaining his policies \r\non restricting and eventually eliminating the right to abortion.<\/p>\r\n
D) George W. Bush explaining his economic program to an audience of working \r\npeople.<\/p>\r\n
E) George W. Bush playing like he was talking to the Iraqi people in his \r\nState of the Union address.<\/p>\r\n
3. \"I have gotten somewhat nervous at some of the pronouncements Rumsfeld \r\nhas made. He almost sometimes seems to be enjoying it.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) Michael Moore in his book Stupid White Men <\/i>.<\/p>\r\n
B) Arundhati Roy in her book Power Politics <\/i>.<\/p>\r\n
C) Veterans of U.S. armed services in a \"Call to Conscience \r\nfrom Veterans to Active Duty Troops and Reservists\", available at \r\nwww.rwor.org.<\/p>\r\n
D) Your cousin who signed up for the Reserves to pay for college but just got \r\norders for Iraq, when you were having dinner at your mom's house last week.<\/p>\r\n
E) War Criminal and retired General Arnold Schwartzkopf in the January 28, \r\n2003 Washington Post <\/i>.<\/p>\r\n
4. \"We will not allow the world's worst weapons to remain in the hands of \r\nthe world's worst leaders.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) 90% of the people on the planet discussing how they feel about George \r\nBush's policies and what they have to do.<\/p>\r\n
B) George Bush talking to Congress about Saddam Hussein, in last year's State \r\nof the Union address.<\/p>\r\n
II. Don't Confuse Me With Facts, My Mind's Made Up<\/b><\/p>\r\n<\/b>
5. Who recently \"refused to rule out\" the use of nuclear weapons if \r\nthe U.S. invades Iraq?<\/i><\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein<\/p>\r\n
B) Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf<\/p>\r\n
C) Israeli leader Ariel Sharon<\/p>\r\n
D) LAPD head William Bratton<\/p>\r\n
E) Bush spokesman Ari Fleisher<\/p>\r\n
6. Where did the anthrax used in the attacks on liberal congressmen and \r\nmedia people in the fall of 2001 originate?<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) A super-secret chemical warfare factory, hidden under a falafel stand \r\nin Baghdad.<\/p>\r\n
B) A super-secret chemical warfare factory, hidden behind a locker in a \r\nsports stadium in North Korea.<\/p>\r\n
C) A super-secret chemical warfare factory, hidden in a shoebox in this guy's \r\ngarage in downtown Teheran.<\/p>\r\n
D) The U.S. Army's biological warfare research facilities at Fort Detrick, \r\nMaryland.<\/p>\r\n
E) Anthrax? What anthrax?<\/p>\r\n
7. The UN inspectors, as of January 30, had not found any nuclear, \r\nchemical or biological weapons. Yet Bush claims that he knows Iraq has such \r\nweapons. How does he know?<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) God told him.<\/p>\r\n
B) Miss Cleo told him.<\/p>\r\n
C) His father kept the receipts from the U.S. weapons sales to Iraq from when \r\nhe was vice-president and the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein.<\/p>\r\n
D) Saddam confessed to the sex crimes unit of the NYPD.<\/p>\r\n
E) Bush just makes this shit up - you didn't know that?<\/p>\r\n
8. In which of the following ways did the United States support Saddam \r\nHussein?<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) In 1963, the U.S. supported a coup by Saddam's Ba'ath Party, supplying \r\nit with the names of between 3,000 to 5,000 communists, whom the Ba'athists \r\npromptly murdered.<\/p>\r\n
B) In 1980, the U.S. supported Iraq's invasion of Iran, giving it \r\nintelligence, economic aid and political support. Over one million people, \r\nIraqis and Iranians, died in this war.<\/p>\r\n
C) In 1988, after Iraq kills thousands of Kurdish people in poison gas \r\nattacks, the U.S. stepped up its support for the regime.<\/p>\r\n
D) In 1990, the U.S. indicated that they had \"no opinion\" on Iraq's border \r\ndispute with Kuwait, thereby encouraging Iraq's invasion--which the U.S. turned \r\nto its advantage. (Can you spell \"setup\", boys and girls?)<\/p>\r\n
9. Medact, an organization of British health care professionals, recently \r\nreported on possible civilian casualties if the U.S. invades Iraq. What did they \r\nsay?<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) If the war is short, 10,000 people will probably die.<\/p>\r\n
B) If the war lasts longer, for weeks or months, as many as 260,000 people \r\ncould die in the conflict and its three-month aftermath, with another 200,000 \r\npeople at risk for death from famine and disease.<\/p>\r\n
C) If the war triggers civil war in Iraq, tens of thousands more people will \r\ndie.<\/p>\r\n
D) If nuclear weapons are used (see question 5), almost four million people \r\ncould die.<\/p>\r\n
E) There won't be any casualties at all and all the Iraqi people will live \r\nhappily ever after.<\/p>\r\n
10. CBS Evening News recently reported that the U.S. planned to drop more \r\nbombs on Iraq in the first night of the war than were used during the entire \r\nforty days of bombing of the 1991 war. Then, on the next night, they will repeat \r\nthat. Describing the plan to CBS, one Pentagon official said the \r\nfollowing:<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) \"Don't worry--those bombs are very `smart', so there won't be a single \r\ncivilian killed.\"<\/p>\r\n
B) \"Well, there might be some <\/i>innocent people hurt, but only a \r\nfew.\"<\/p>\r\n
C) \"There will not be a safe place in Baghdad.\"<\/p>\r\n
III. The Special Bonus Cultural Question<\/b><\/p>\r\n<\/b>
11. You know him as the weird and fascistic U.S. Attorney General. But \r\ndid you know that John Ashcroft also composes and sings religious and patriotic \r\nsongs? In fact, for a while after September 11 he forced Justice Department \r\nemployees to sing a song he specially wrote every morning. (That's actually \r\ntrue, too!) And his cultural accomplishments don't stop there. See if you can \r\nguess which movie roles John Ashcroft has had.<\/i><\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) The preacher who tried to ban dancing in Footloose<\/i><\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
B) The \"cute\" velociraptor in Jurassic Park II<\/p>\r\n
C) The cross in Madonna's Like a Prayer <\/i>video<\/p>\r\n
D) That creepy guy dressed in the zippered up black costume in Pulp Fiction. \r\nYou know, the one they kept in a trunk and only let out when they wanted to \r\ntorture the character played by Ving Rhames? Yeah, that guy.<\/p>\r\n
E) Hitler's right-hand man Joseph Goebbels in the upcoming musical \r\nSpringtime for Cheney <\/i>.<\/p>\r\n
IV. The \"Less Filling, Tastes Great\" Freedom of Speech Question<\/b><\/p>\r\n<\/b>
12. In order to foster a vigorous debate, what measures have been \r\ntaken of late?<\/i><\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) Howard Zinn was given equal time on all three networks to refute \r\nGeorge Bush's State of the Union speech.<\/p>\r\n
B) Comcast Cable TV network refused to run an antiwar ad on CNN during the \r\nState of the Union Speech.<\/p>\r\n
C) Colin Powell agreed to debate Carl Dix about Vietnam, Black people in the \r\narmy, and the invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\r\n
D) Laura Bush cancelled a poetry reading at the White House because she was \r\nscared that someone would read an antiwar poem.<\/p>\r\n
E) Students all over the country decided to stop all classwork and demand to \r\ndebate the war.<\/p>\r\n
V. The \"If This is Not Evil, Then Evil Has No Meaning\" Question<\/b><\/p>\r\n<\/b>
13. How many children are estimated by UNICEF to have died each month \r\nfor the past 11 years as a result of the United Nations \"sanctions\" that have \r\nmainly been pushed by the U.S. and Britain?<\/i><\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
A) 5,000 this month<\/p>\r\n
B) 5,000 last month<\/p>\r\n
C) 5,000 the month before<\/p>\r\n
D) 5,000 the month before that<\/p>\r\n
E) 5,000 the month before that one<\/p>\r\n
Okay, all done? Now check your answers!<\/p>\r\n
1) The technically correct answer is E, for which you get five points. But \r\nthe best answer is C. If you answered C give yourself ten points.<\/p>\r\n
2) The correct answer is E, five points. But each of the other answers is \r\nworth ten points, because they reflect reality in a more profound way.<\/p>\r\n
3) Michael Moore, Arundhati Roy and the Vets' Call to Conscience <\/i>all \r\nsay profound and interesting things about Rumsfeld, so if you answered yes to A, \r\nB or C, give yourself ten points, and if you didn't then go check out these \r\npieces. If you answered yes to D, give yourself 20 points--but only if you gave \r\nyour cousin a copy of the vets' statement. If you answered, E, the correct \r\nanswer, give yourself five points. Yeah, it was him--Schwartzkopf said it--guess \r\nit takes one to know one, eh?<\/p>\r\n
4) Both answers are correct, but the people of the world don't have to cross \r\ntheir fingers when they say it.<\/p>\r\n
5) The correct answer is E. Of course, you're probably confused a little \r\nsince B and C may end up using theirs, depending on how things develop. If you \r\nanswered Bratton, you'll be happy to know that city regulations forbid the \r\npolice to use tactical nuclear weapons outside of Los Angeles County.<\/p>\r\n
6) D -- 20 points for the correct answer. If you answered E, don't \r\nworry--you're supposed to forget about those attacks. That's the plan.<\/p>\r\n
7) E is correct, 20 points. If you answered D, you're probably confused \r\nbecause the NYPD coerced the phony confessions that were used to railroad five \r\ninnocent men in the Central Park jogger case. But, hey, maybe they should \r\nvolunteer their services around Iraq too.<\/p>\r\n
8) All answers correct, five points each.<\/p>\r\n
9) A through D are correct, five points each. If you answered E, you've been \r\nlistening to a little too much talk from Bush, Powell, and so on.<\/p>\r\n
10) C is correct. Ten points, but only if you are actively opposing the war \r\nbecause you understand the implications of this.<\/p>\r\n
11) You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. \r\nShould you be unable to hire an attorney, an attorney will be provided. Or \r\nnot.<\/p>\r\n
12) If you answered A or C, you have a case of wishful thinking, but your \r\naspirations are in the right place. And it would be way cool, too, right? Five \r\npoints. If you answered B or D, you are correct. Five points. If you answered E, \r\nand are willing to work to make it happen, 50 points.<\/p>\r\n
13) No points at all. Just think about this whenever you get tired.<\/p>\r\n
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, \r\nMerchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: \r\n773-227-4497
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