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Posted By: Corlnel

Posted On: Mar 26, 2003
Views: 389
AWOL

What's going on? So many whimps going AWOL????

Posted By: Max Powers

Posted On: Mar 26, 2003
Views: 388
RE: AWOL

if this isnt the biggest load of s h i t. What is wrong with you pussies? your given a chance to act like you are defending the rights of our nation, and given a choice of what you would be. and you say AWOL? wtf? you have some major problems if you said you would go AWOL!

Posted By: Nik Ashmost

Posted On: Mar 26, 2003
Views: 386
RE: AWOL

You're absolutely right Homer, er, "Max". A chance to "act like" we're defending our rights. Problem is, it's just that, an act. People act like Saddam's the only dictator in the world that doesn't run a democracy. Why is he being singled out exactly? Dictators & such torture & are cruel to the people they rule over all around the world, so why only go after Saddam?

Posted By: Chuck Rose

Posted On: Mar 26, 2003
Views: 383
RE: AWOL

Hey Nik. How about because he is the one that poses an immediate threat to American citizens? Is that not a good enough reason? Don't you just love these people that keep spouting off all this nonsense about all these other countries and ruling powers that are as 'evil' as Iraq? "Why are we only going after Saddam?", they ask. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that his regime poses a legitimate threat to Americans at home and abroad. And they still bitch and moan about removing him from power. Can you imagine the firestorm created if we started going to war with every, single country that is 'evil'? The only other country that should be of genuine interest right now is North Korea. That issue is still in the diplomatic stages, though, and is of no immediate threat to our country right now. I'm sure that if they ever are, they will be dealt with. Nik, you are a moron.

Posted By: Read and Learn

Posted On: Mar 26, 2003
Views: 361
RE: AWOL

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 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.< br /> (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?ite
mNo=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,
http://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.


Posted By: Shuliskin

Posted On: Mar 27, 2003
Views: 333
RE: RE: AWOL

AWOL is the correct answer....not right or wrong. Everyone makes choices in life. If I'd made the "correct" descion in '67 those would be four familiar letters. I still cry for my friends. Don't buy into this b.s. Dubya is lying to the country. In the entire mideast Iraq is the least of our problems....that's why we supported Saddam in the past. It's the religious zealots that surrond him that will get us in the end. Saddam has seven palaces and he's ****ing his countrymen....how more "American" can you get?

Posted By: Nik Ashmost

Posted On: Mar 27, 2003
Views: 325
RE: AWOL

oh Chuck, you poor poor gullible boy you. What "immediate threat" does Saddam pose to America? let me guess, you're a big fan of "Minority Report" aren't you. The whole idea of stopping a crime out of fear it might happen. And you said yourself, North Korea should also be gone after, yet what is going on with them? Nothing. So tell me oh wise moron, what threat has Saddam posed to america? What missiles of his can reach America? And before you spout off about terrorism, he isn't the only country with terrorist capabilities. Yet he's bush's #1 target, interesting. I mean really, to think Saddam poses such a major threat to America when he hasn't done a thing in 12 years is a little paranoid I think. And when did this whole "Axis of Evil" turn into one country? Were three too many for Bush to focus on?

Posted By: Rothgo Wooft

Posted On: Mar 27, 2003
Views: 320
RE: AWOL

Its only oil... Now if all that money had been spent on finding fossil fuel alternatives rather than making guns, there'd be no reason for this struggle for the worlds remaining oil fields...
Or so I heard on the TV.

Posted By: Loomis

Posted On: Mar 27, 2003
Views: 315
RE: AWOL

Yeah, i think there is something fundimentally wrong with replying "AWOL." You dont have to agree that the cause is legitimate or just, but to not support an effort that is already in motion is f**ked up. So many people these days enjoy driving on federally funded highways, they enjoy low gas prices, high saftey standards in airplane and automobile production, reletively safe neighborhoods, clean air, public education, etc. The government provides all these things for us. I think the least that we owe the goverment would be to not ungratefully run away if it ever called upon us to fight. As screwed up as everyone likes to say our government is, it does some pretty spectacular things for us that we take for granted. Open your eyes people. We have it good, so stop bitching and show some respect towards your government. Its done a lot more for you than you realize.

Posted By: Sean

Posted On: Mar 27, 2003
Views: 306
RE: AWOL

In Response to Read and Learn. If you scored over 1500 on your SAT's then you now that war with Iraq is the only way to go. ****ing anti-war protestors with their untested **** for a response.

Posted By: Read and Learn

Posted On: Mar 27, 2003
Views: 300
RE: RE: AWOL

You obviously didn't fare very well on your SAT examination.

"In Response to Read and Learn."

Now that is not a complete sentence. Also, I'm not sure why you capitalized "Response". What you wrote is just a sentence fragment. In the future try the following:

"In response to Read and Learn:”

Additionally, you seem to have some difficulty with silent consonants.

“If you scored over 1500 on your SAT’s then you now that the war…”

I believe the word you were searching for is know. The k is silent, like in knee, knife, and knowledge. Judging from your response you didn’t quite make it though the test. Fortunately, you can still try reading the whole thing again. You might learn something.


Posted By: Sean

Posted On: Mar 30, 2003
Views: 260
RE: RE: AWOL

Judging from your response you didn’t quite make it though the test. Yeah, let's talk about ****ing up on your SAT's. Let me guess, you scored about 400 on your english portion because that sentence doesn't make sense. I seem to make a few mistakes when I am typing 80 words per minute. Sorry. So **** me in the ass. You think that I have some problems with silent consonants, well the K Y and O are silent in **** YOU...and oh yeah I capitalized **** YOU.

Posted By: anti-diplomatic

Posted On: Sep 5, 2005
Views: 183
RE: AWOL

Just to inconvinience everyone.

The war on Iraq is just a way for America to function.
Since America is a country made up of loads of states, it would be very hard for anyone to have any kind of control over all of them.

There are several ways to solve that, they are as the following; propagandising, religion and war.

Now, propagandising produces a backlash from all the other countries, and the ruler is seen as a dictator, so that method is currently not in use.

Religion is getting harder in this day and age, it would work because of the naturally hopeful state of humanity, but the internet and television have made it very hard for any kind of religion to lord over everybody.

War is the best way. Countries that are made up of a lot of small seperate states or whatever, are not very connected to any sort of leader. But a war always brings out the patriotism in most people. People who do not go to war and go AWOL, are made to seem like cowards and the govornment makes them feel guilty for their country and work harder as a result. There is nothing like a tremendous war to unite people.

I know I am being completly biased. But I don't care.
Neither do you, don't deny it.

Sorry for all the gramatical/spelling mistakes but I am writing in a hurry.

Awaiting all hate posts against me.