Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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1. What is “Real Politik”?

2. Why is “Real Politik” (aka “National Interest”) the polar opposite of the derogatory term “Policeman of the World”?

3. Does 27.7% of the world’s oil production come from the Middle East? Does another 20.2% originate in countries “down wind” from the Middle East?

4. Is oil fungible? In other words, if 47.9% of the world’s oil supply becomes radioactive, can the U.S. take comfort in the fact that much of its oil imports comes from Canada and Venezuela, or will the U.S. be forced to wake up to the fact that Canadian and Venezuelan oil will go to the Japans of the world if the U.S. cannot afford to pay the new world price?

5. Did Iran, North Korea and Libya purchase nuclear-bomb technology from Pakistan’s notorious scientist, A.Q. Kahn, the “father of the Pakistani atomic bomb”?

6. Following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq which had been claiming that it had deployed operational nuclear weapons (a claim of success for its 25-year-old nuclear program that was believed, inter alia, by France, Germany, the U.N., etc.), did North Korea race to develop and test its nuclear weapons?

7. Following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, did Libya’s Colonel Qaddafi “get cold feet” and surprise the U.S. and its allies on two counts = (A) that he had been developing nuclear weapons as a result of technology purchased from A.Q. Kahn, and (B) that he now wanted to abandon his nuclear-weapons program in order to avoid the wrath of the U.S. and its allies?

8. Following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, has Iran “steered a middle course” according to the U.N. and its International Atomic Energy Agency (“IAEA”) by racing to develop nuclear weapons while claiming that its nuclear program is only intended for the peaceful purpose of producing electrical power?

9. Are our foreign-policy cognoscenti now waking up to the fact that last year’s U.S./British/French attack on Libya and our “free pass” for nuclear North Korea have convinced Iran that the only way to avoid a military attack is, like North Korea, to develop atomic weapons?

10. Will the “Gulf State Six” (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman) go nuclear as soon as Iran develops nuclear weapons because the Gulf State Six have no more faith in the American “nuclear umbrella” than Charles de Gaulle when he pulled France out of NATO and proceeded to develop French nuclear weapons?

11. Is 47.9% of the world’s oil supply likely to become radioactive in the near future if Iran and its Arab neighbors are “armed to the teeth” with nuclear weapons?

12. Have each of the Republican Presidential candidates (except for Ron Paul who has no chance for the nomination because of his foreign-policy positions), claimed that they would prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons by military force if necessary, while President Obama will not do so?

13. Do these claims provide “running room” for President Obama to attack Iran? To negotiate from a position of strength?

14. Is a military attack likely to be successful in terms of eliminating or delaying Iran’s nuclear-weapons program –- without regime change?

15. When President Clinton signed on 10/31/1998 the Iraq Liberation Act making regime change in Iraq official U.S. policy, how difficult did President Clinton think that regime change in Iraq would be?

16. Did our author, Leslie Gelb, argue in the Daily Beast on 1/17/2012 that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should debate invading Iran before a decision is taken by President Obama?

17. Is it ironic that Leslie Gelb’s 1/17/2012 article does NOT acknowledge that his recommendation is unconstitutional? In other words, that the U.S. Constitution requires a “Declaration of War” by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, rather than a mere debate by a mere committee of only one of the houses of Congress?