Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: High-Profile Study Suggests New Course in Iraq, 12/06/06
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec06/iraqstudy_12-06.html

Initiating Questions:

1. How would you characterize what is happening in Iraq right now?
2. What is the current U.S. policy in Iraq?
3. Why is there so much violence?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Why is Iraq in the news right now?

An independent report commissioned by Congress recommends the United States withdraw combat troops from Iraq by 2008 and cooperate with neighboring countries.

The Iraq Study Group made up of five Democrats and five Republicans delivered the advice to President Bush Wednesday morning after a nine-month review of what is going right and wrong in Iraq.

2. To which political parties do the Iraq Study Group members belong?

The Iraq Study Group, made up of five Democrats and five Republicans, delivered the advice to President Bush...

3. What did President Bush say he would do after he received the Iraq Study Group's report?

Though the White House welcomed the study, President Bush said he would not feel obliged to apply the recommendations nor commit to a timeframe for troop withdrawal.

"I know there's a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there's going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq. We're going to stay in Iraq to get the job done, so long as the government wants us there," Mr. Bush said before the report's release.

4. Name the leaders of the Iraq Study Group and other members on the commission.

Republican James Baker III, secretary of state during the Persian Gulf war, and Democrat Lee Hamilton, a 34-year congressman, were selected to lead the study group, which included former Clinton officials and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

5. Who did the Iraq Study Group interview?

The group began its work behind closed doors in March, meeting with some 200 experts and world leaders over eight months, including the president, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and representatives from Iraq's neighbor countries Iran and Syria.

6. What was the study group's first recommendation?

The report's first suggestion was to increase diplomacy in the Middle East, particularly Iran and Syria.

7. Why is the first recommendation problematic for the U.S. government?

But neither of these countries is considered a friend by the U.S. Government: the State Department considers both countries sponsors of terrorism.

8. What did the study group suggest for U.S. troops?

The group also suggested U.S. Troops in Iraq switch focus from combating insurgents to supporting Iraqi troops.

9. Which groups are preparing another review of Iraq for the president?

The White House is expecting a second review of Iraq strategy later this month from the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council, which would give Mr. Bush other options.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. If you were a presidential adviser on Iraq strategy, what would you recommend to the president? Explain why your strategy would be more effective than an alternative. And, if you suggest a troop withdrawal, when should troops withdraw? If you suggest diplomacy, which countries should you invite and where should you meet?

2. Defense secretary nominee Robert Gates told a Senate committee that the United States is neither winning nor losing the Iraq War.
Gates said, "Our military forces win the battles that they fight; our soldiers have done an incredible job in Iraq. And I'm not aware of a single battle that they have lost."
How should the administration decide whether a military action is a success or not? Do you think the war has been a success?

3. What military conflicts have you studied recently? What are similarities and differences between those conflicts and the situation in Iraq?

4. Research one of the following commissions: the Tower Commission, the 9/11 Commission, the Warren Commission, or the Rogers Commission. What event(s) lead to the commission's formation? What was the commission's mandate? What did the commission recommend? Were the recommendations followed or ignored? What might have happened if the recommendations were followed or ignored?

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.