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: Is the Conflict in Iraq 'Civil War'?, 11/29/06
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec06/civilwar_11-29.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What is a civil war?

2. Do you think what is happening in Iraq now is a civil war?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. How has the increase in violence in Iraq impacted the news reporting of the situation there?

The increase in violence has led news organizations such as NBC and the Los Angeles Times to officially refer to the situation as a "civil war," sparking a debate over words and their implications for U.S. policy

"It's something that we have a responsibility to ask ourselves as we're reporting and to try to get as close to the truth as possible," Marjorie Miller, foreign editor at the Los Angeles Times, told the NewsHour.

2. Does President Bush agree with the term civil war?

President Bush has not yet called the situation in Iraq a civil war.

"No question it's tough," Mr. Bush said. "There's a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented, in my opinion, because of these attacks by al-Qaida, causing people to seek reprisal."

3. What is the definition of a civil war?

Traditionally, the term "civil war" refers to an armed conflict between a government and internal challengers that results in the deaths of a large number of people -- 1,000 over a year is a common benchmark, according to Nicholas Sambanis, a professor of political science at Yale University.

4. What is the Iraq Study Group? What is its goal? Who are its members?

As the use of the term is debated, others are looking for ways to create a successful outcome in Iraq.

One team attempting this is the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission led by former secretary of state James Baker, a Republican, and former Representative Lee Hamilton, a Democrat.

The group is meeting this week and expects to present its policy recommendations to Congress in December.

5. What are some possible outcomes from the Iraq Study Group?

Although its decisions are not yet final, one idea being examined is to engage Iraq's neighbors, especially Iran and Syria, to get them to help support the country's fledgling government.

In addition, the group, made up of five Republicans and five Democrats, is considering a plan that could include a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops, The Washington Post reported.

6. What are some other ideas about how to shape the U.S. policy for Iraq?

The Pentagon panel seems to favor a policy of "Going Long" -- a plan in which the number of troops would be boosted initially. But more troops would be used to train Iraqi security forces and fewer would be used in direct combat positions, The New York Times reported.

Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, a Vietnam veteran who may run for president in 2008, also has argued that the United States needs to increase, not decrease the number of troops in Iraq, despite the clear strain it will put on the military.

"There's no good options," McCain told ABC News. "But the consequences of failure are severe, and I believe that we must do what's necessary to prevail. And I understand how terrible this is. The young men and women who are in the military today, and God bless them, they'll respond if called upon to."

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Do you think there a civil war in Iraq? Explain your reasoning with clear examples.

2. Look at the opinions of various historians in this news article regarding the use of the term civil war. What do you think? Does how we label something impact how it's viewed by the public? How does labeling Iraq a civil war impact your perception of the situation there?

3. Pretend you are a policy maker charged with coming up with a U.S. policy for Iraq. How would you advise the president? How would you make your decision?

4. What is the difference between a reporter and a historian? How might each see Iraq differently? Why?

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.