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Are You Anti-American? Take This Quiz and Find Out!
BUZZFLASH
READER COMMENTARY
by Maureen Farrell
1) The Constitution of the United States is:
a) An amazing achievement and a gift from America's founders.
b) Often wrongly evoked as the president's mandate to protect U.S. interests unilaterally and recklessly -- whether there is an immediate threat to our national security or not.
c) Devalued by those who would shamelessly sacrifice liberty, while disrespectfully referring to the Bill of Rights as a "suicide pact."
d) Deemed irrelevant by those who consider the framer's wisdom and vision antiquated and feel that Congress need not declare war.
e) All of the above.
2) Pivotal legislative moments in American History include:
a) The ratification of the U.S. Constitution, after heated debates between Federalists and Antifederalists and the inclusion of the Bill of Rights.
b) The formation of the Department of Defense in 1947, after a lengthy deliberation process which included two years of Congressional hearings.
c) The passage of the PATRIOT Act, which was steamrolled through the House and the Senate, without debate, following unsolved Anthrax attacks against Democratic leaders.
d) The vote on the Homeland Security Act, which was also railroaded into law, after ballooning from 32 to nearly 500 pages overnight, despite complaints that this legislation protects special interests and "expands the federal police state."
e) All of the above.
3) Recently leaked draft legislation, the "Domestic Security Act of 2003," shows that the Justice Department:
a) Is considering secret arrests for the first time in American history.
b) Has developed a plan to strip Americans of their citizenship (for violations citizens might not even be aware of).
c) Wants to reduce or eliminate judicial oversight, while increasing the government's power and authority.
d) May have been, as Center for Public Integrity Executive Director Chuck Lewis observed, "waiting for a war or something" to "pop this baby out and try to jam it through."
e) All of the above.
4) Some of America's responses to tragedy have been:
a) A series of inquiries into Pearl Harbor, the first of which was a commission authorized by President Roosevelt weeks after the attack.
b) Timely investigations into hijackings and plane crashes. (Aside from 9/11, each of the 682 hijackings occurring worldwide since 1972 has been thoroughly investigated).
c) The immediate call for an independent investigation into the Jan. 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster, just hours after the tragedy.
d) Dick Cheney's assertion that a call for an investigation into 9/11 was "thoroughly irresponsible. . . in a time of war" and the president's sketchy choices to head the investigation once he agreed, well over a year later, to establish one. (Gov. Thomas Kean, who, like President Bush, has ties to BCCI, the bin Ladens and big oil, offers little reassurance).
e) All of the above
5) Justifications for America's involvement in wars include:
a) The sinking of the U.S. Maine and the Lusitania. (Both based upon lies).
b) Unprovoked (but blatantly false) attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
c) Testimony about Iraqi soldiers tossing babies out of incubators and a satellite photo showing soldiers amassed at Saudi Arabia's border. (Both were lies, but the incubator story proved crucial in selling the Gulf War to the Senate and the American people).
d) George W. Bush's references to an International Atomic Energy Agency report that Iraq is "six months away from developing a weapon" (a lie), his statement regarding unmanned Iraqi aircraft that could be used "for missions targeting the United States" (a lie), references to shipments of aluminum tubes to make nuclear weapons in Iraq (yet another lie), attempts to link Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein (refuted by the CIA, FBI and British intelligence) and Colin Powell's glowing citation of Tony Blair's Iraq dossier (some of which was plagiarized from dated academic articles).
e) All of the above.
6) Democracies that champion America's upcoming war with in Iraq are:
a) England, where 7 out of 8 citizens disagree with military action against Iraq.
b) Australia, where the majority overwhelmingly disagrees with this war and where the Senate issued an historic no-confidence vote against Prime Minister John Howard "for sending troops to a potential war without a proper explanation to the Australian people."
c) Other countries in "new Europe," whose citizens also largely oppose this war.
d) Israel.
e) All of the above.
7) France and Germany's plan for Iraq:
a) Calls for peaceful disarmament and engages the international community.
b) Involves U.N. troops occupying Iraq to insure that Saddam doesn't play cat and mouse games with inspectors.
c) Is welcomed by China, Belgium and Russia's Vladimir Putin, who, as the BBC reports, "is on a whirlwind tour of Europe to drum up opposition to a possible US-led attack on Iraq."
d) Was proposed after Donald Rumsfeld's dismissal of "old Europe" and Sen. John McCain's observation that France and Germany's behavior stemmed from "calculated self interest" that has made "Iraq's peaceful disarmament less likely."
e) All of the above.
8) The Founding Fathers' prescient vision can be found in:
a) George Washington's observation that America should, "observe good faith and justice toward all nations" and should "cultivate peace and harmony with all."
b) James Madison's remarks that "the executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it."
c) Ben Franklin's statement that "even successful wars at length become misfortunes to those who unjustly commence them."
d) Thomas Jefferson's warning that, "When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."
e) All of the above.
9) Since Bush's inauguration:
a) There have been over 300 rollbacks in the Freedom of Information Act.
b) Presidential papers meant for public scrutiny have been sealed and the GAO's energy task force law suit has been dropped, giving credence to Rep. Dan Burton's concern that there is "an iron veil descending over the executive branch."
c) Government spokesperson Ari Fleischer has told Americans they need to watch what they say and watch what they do, as John Poindexter's Total Information Office becomes poised to watch what Americans say and do, too.
d) Priests and other peace activists have ended up on "no-fly" lists and had their travel privileges suspended.
e) All of the above.
10) America's contemporary patriots include:
a) Pentagon Papers patriot Daniel Ellsberg, who, in addition to unveiling sordid truths about the Vietnam War, shed light on ways the executive branch routinely lies to Congress, the Senate and the American people.
b) The Justice Department employee who leaked "the Domestic Security Act of 2003" at great personal risk.
c) Councilmen in a growing number of cities who have passed antiwar resolutions and have refused to comply with the U.S. PATRIOT Act.
d) Citizens partaking in antiwar demonstrations and other gloriously American forms of civil disobedience, such as those who've come up with their own version of the Boston tea party, http://www.nwtrcc.org/
e) All of the above
Congratulations! If you answered "e" to these questions, you're better informed than most. Although, frankly, since half of all Americans believe Iraq was involved in Sept. 11 and 87% of college-aged students can't find Iraq on a map, it's not a monumental achievement.
Sadly, however, these days, being informed (or empathetic) is enough to brand you "anti-American." Don't believe the U.S. should engage in preemptive strikes? Think America has no business divvying up Iraq's oil? Wonder if any nation has the right to topple countries' leaders and install governments to their liking? If you don't appreciate that the defense budget is ballooning to nearly $500 billion, if America feels more like an Empire than a Republic, and if the phrase "taxation without representation" has you wondering what life was like before these days of military and corporate socialism, you're inflicted.
But, take heart. You're not the first to feel this way. As Thomas Jefferson reminded in the Declaration of Independence, "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."
So, Ok. Warmongering fascists might call you anti-American. Big whoop. These days, Thomas Jefferson would be considered anti-American, too.
BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
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