Greenmilk

During a naturalization interview, can they ask you if you support
invasion of Iraq?(or any other country)

Should the person answer YES, even if he/she does not really believe in
the war?
(wouldn't that be considered lying?) Or is it worse to answer
truthfully by saying NO?

The reason I'm asking is that her uncle who went throught the interview
several years ago was asked if he would bear arm in defense of the
United States?(for exmaple, if drafted like they did in Vietma-war era)

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Just Cocky

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 03:09:05 +0000, greenmilk
<[email protected]> wrote:
    >During a naturalization interview, can they ask you if you support
    >invasion of Iraq?(or any other country)

No.

    >The reason I'm asking is that her uncle who went throught the interview
    >several years ago was asked if he would bear arm in defense of the
    >United States?(for exmaple, if drafted like they did in Vietma-war era)

That is a legitimate question for a would-be citizen. As far as I
know, the answer has to be 'yes'.

akvrpn

I would answer NO, because the war was based on a bunch of lies.

CarlM

Its a subjective question - they wont ask your opinion..

ian-mstm

They can ask anything they want. Will they? No.


Have you actually read the application form? It requires a Yes/No response to the following questions:

If the law requires it, are you willing to bear arms on behalf of the United States?
If the law requires it, are you willing to perform noncombatant services in the U.S. Armed Forces?
If the law requires it, are you willing to perform work of national importance under civilian direction?

If you answer "No" to any of them, you must say why!

Ian

Rich Wales

They won't ask you if you agree with the US invasion of Iraq.

They WILL ask you if you are willing to agree to bear arms, or
perform noncombatant military service, or perform civilian work
of "national importance".

Unless you are a religiously based total pacifist ("religiously"
is defined fairly loosely here, but it has to be more than just
a secular political or social philosophy), you're going to have
a rough time unless you are willing to bear arms (i.e., accept
conscription as a regular soldier in the US military).

If you can give convincing proof that you would qualify as a
"conscientious objector" under the US's draft law, then you can
get away with refusing to agree to bear arms. Depending on the
detailed nature of your position, you may also be able to get
an exemption from agreeing to noncombatant military service.

You MUST, in any case, be willing to perform civilian service
if required by law, or else your naturalization application will
definitely be turned down. That's a "bottom line" position that
all pacifists are required to agree to under current US law.

Keep in mind, of course, that the whole conscription bit is
EXTREMELY hypothetical, since no one has actually been drafted
in the US since 1973, and there is NO evidence right now that
Congress has ANY inclination to reauthorize a military draft.
(The draft registration process -- the "Selective Service"
bureaucracy -- still exists, but it's just a standby process
to allow a draft to resume expeditiously in the unlikely event
that Congress were to decide to reauthorize conscription.)

If you want more information about the "bearing arms" bit, or
about the alternatives, go to Google and search for the phrase
"conscientious objectors" in misc.immigration.usa. I've posted
several articles with this phrase in the past. Be aware that
any posting you find which claims that someone who isn't willing
to bear arms for the US is a coward and doesn't deserve to become
a US citizen is that particular poster's own personal opinion,
not supported by current US law.

Rich Wales [email protected] http://www.richw.org/dualcit/
*DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, professional immigration consultant,
or consular officer. My comments are for discussion purposes only and
are not intended to be relied upon as legal or professional advice.