January 9, 2002

THE TUG OF WAR
Exploring the Rationale Behind Potential Future Military Strikes in the War Against Terrorism

Grades:  6-8,9-12

Subjects:  American History, Current Events, Geography, Global History, Social Studies

Related New York Times Article
"U.S. Sees Battles After Afghan War in Lawless Areas, By JAMES DAO and ERIC SCHMITT", January 9, 2002

Overview of Lesson Plan:: In this lesson, students learn about some of the potential future targets in the war against terrorism. Groups investigate the history of terrorism in Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Iraq, and then synthesize their understanding in letters written from the perspectives of various people in their assigned countries or otherwise involved in the war against terrorism.

SUGGESTED TIME ALLOWANCE: 45 minutes - 1 hour

OBJECTIVES:
Students will:

  1. Analyze comments by United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz on January 7, 2002 about countries that may be future targets in the war against terrorism.
  2. Learn about the terrorist histories of those countries and the potential successes and difficulties in the ongoing war against terrorism by reading and discussing "U.S. Sees Battles After Afghan War in Lawless Areas."
  3. Work as groups to investigate past and present terrorist activity in Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Yemen.
  4. Synthesize their understanding by writing letters, from the perspectives of various people connected to the countries researched, regarding the possibility of military strikes in their countries and sharing their opinions on the war in Afghanistan.

RESOURCES / MATERIALS:

ACTIVITIES / PROCEDURES:

  1. WARM-UP/DO-NOW: Prior to class, arrange desks into ten small groups of equal size. Place an index card at the center of each grouping with one of the following quotations written on it (each quotation will be given to two groups; for easier grouping later in class, place the cards with the same quotations in adjacent groups):
    IRAQ: "President Saddam Hussein is keeping his head down these days... That should not leave the impression that he doesn't continue to do a bunch of things that concern us."
    SOMALIA: "Obviously Somalia comes up as a possible candidate for Al Qaeda people to flee to precisely because the government is weak or nonexistent... By definition you don't have a government you can work with."
    THE PHILIPPINES: "(American involvement) might include direct support of Philippine military operations. There's no question that we believe that if they could clear the Abu Sayyaf group out of Basilan Island, that would be a small blow against the extended Al Qaeda network... (But the Manila government is) very anxious to do it themselves. That's the crucial standard for them. They're very willing to take help within the framework of helping them help themselves."
    INDONESIA: "You see the potential for Muslim extremists and Muslim terrorists to link up with those Muslim groups in Indonesia and find a little corner for themselves in a country that's otherwise quite unfriendly to terrorism. In the case of Sulawesi (Island), the concern is there isn't enough military to protect the local population or to create the kinds of stable conditions that keep terrorism down."
    YEMEN: "There are very significant back regions of Yemen. That's a case of an ungoverned piece of a country." Upon entering class, ask groups to respond to the following prompt, written on the board prior to class:
    "The remark on your group's index card was stated by United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz on January 7, 2002, with regards to possible places to which the war against terrorism might extend. As a group, read the quotation carefully and discuss the following questions. One student in your group should jot down your answers.
    • How do you think this quotation relates to the war on terrorism currently taking place in Afghanistan?
    • What do you know about terrorism as it relates to the country in your quotation?
    • What questions do you have after reading this quotation?
    • What concerns does this quotation raise with you?
    " Encourage groups to share their quotations and responses.
  2. As a class, read and discuss "U.S. Sees Battles After Afghan War in Lawless Areas," focusing on the following questions:
    1. What does "denying sanctuary" to a terrorist group mean?
    2. What do Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz's statements suggest with regards to the "difficulty" of the targets that may be targeted next in the United States' war on terrorism?
    3. How might attacking these targets, rather than "bigger and politically more difficult targets," help to avoid conflicts with other countries?
    4. What is Wolfowitz's stance on Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein?
    5. How have the military strikes in Afghanistan impacted other countries that have supported terrorism? What quotations in the article support this assertion? What has Iraq's response been?
    6. What specific information about the war in Afghanistan is offered in this article? Why is it included here, when the article is focusing mainly on potential future targets?
    7. Why do you think Wolfowitz asserts that "one of the most difficult things in the next few months is going to be establishing which of our allies of convenience in the early stages of this war can become real allies over the long term, and which ones are going to be major troublemakers, and which ones are going to just switch sides"?
    8. What is Wolfowitz's opinion of Hamid Karzai, the leader of the interim government in Kabul?
    9. Why does Somalia "fit the bill" for a future military strike by the United States? What has the United States already done there in the fight against terrorism? What similarities exist or are hoped to exist between Somalia and Afghanistan?
    10. What has the United States already done in the Philippines in the fight against terrorism? How is the government there different in its position against terrorism?
    11. What is the concern on Sulawesi Island in Indonesia? What is the Indonesian government like in different areas?
    12. What backlash is feared in Indonesia?
    13. Why is the Pentagon under restrictions about conducting some joint exercises with the Indonesian military, and how might the events of Sept. 11, 2001 have affected this?
    14. How is Yemen characterized? What has happened there since Sept. 11?
  3. Combine groups from the quotation activity so that the two groups with the same quotation are together, forming five groups - Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Yemen. Using all available resources, each group investigates the history of terrorist activity in their assigned country, answering the following questions (written on the board for easier student reference):
    • How would you characterize the past and present relationship between your assigned country and the United States? (Include any specific events that demonstrate this relationship.)
    • What specific examples of terrorist acts have been committed in, by or for your assigned country in the past 20-30 years?
    • What known terrorist groups exist in your assigned country? Who are involved in these groups? What are their goals? How are they funded?
    • What is the geographic layout of this country, and how might this affect military strikes on this country? How might the geography help or hinder terrorists there?
    • What is the government's relationship with the terrorist groups? Does the government itself "sponsor" acts deemed terrorist, or does the government support paramilitary or rebel groups to commit these acts? If so, what are the government "motivations" or goals for promoting terrorism?
  4. WRAP-UP/HOMEWORK: Each person in a group chooses one of the following personas, so that no two students have the same persona: leader of their assigned country, member of a terrorist organization in their assigned country, other citizen of that country, leader of one of the other potentially targeted countries, United States citizen, United Nations delegate, citizen of Afghanistan, or any other person who might have a related opinion. Each student then writes a letter, in the voice of his or her persona, to any of the other personas in the group incorporating information from the group's research to inform his or her opinion on the following questions (written on the board for students to copy prior to leaving class): "Do you support the war against terrorism extending into your country? Why or why not? How do you feel about the war in Afghanistan? What resolutions can you suggest?" Students should share their letters in a future class by reading them aloud, posting them on a bulletin board, or compiling a class book.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

EVALUATION / ASSESSMENT:
Students will be evaluated based on initial group discussion surrounding a quotation, participation in class discussions, thoughtful participation in group research, and well-developed, research-based letters written from various perspectives.

VOCABULARY:
sanctuary, aggressive, opt, allies, leery, equipped, uproot, explicit, forecast, imminent, advocates, ousting, harboring, diplomatic, asserted, devastating, induced, deterrent, treacherous, ambush, remnants, enclave, armored, artillery, compound, convenience, formidable, reconnaissance, nonexistent, proxy, quell, rebellion, framework, backlash, disparate

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:

  1. Create a timeline tracing United States military action in Afghanistan in the war against terrorism. Include critical events, places, and people involved with headlines, photographs, maps, and your own text. [The New York Times on the Web's special feature "A Nation Challenged" (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/dayofterror/) has a timeline and archived articles that will prove helpful.) Add to your timeline as events unfold. What successes have there been? What do you speculate will happen in the future?
  2. Create a country guide to any of the five countries researched in class. Include information about the country's government, economy, geography, and demographic information about the people who live there.
  3. Research other past terrorist attacks, such as the 1972 attack of Israeli Olympians in Munich, the Oklahoma City bombing, the sarin attacks on Tokyo subways, the bombing of the two United States embassies in East Africa in 1998, and the attack of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland. What rationale did terrorist groups give for their actions? What punishment did the terrorists receive? How did the country in which the attack took place and/or which the victims were from react to the attack? How did the international community respond? Write a reflective newspaper article that looks back at this event and the reaction to it and compares it to the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and the war on terrorism that has followed.
  4. Create a "War on Terrorism" deck of cards. On the front of each card, display a picture of a leader, map, news photo or other related image. On the back, include information about the image on the front and its relation to the war on terrorism.

INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS:
Civics- Research your country's official policy on terrorism. What, according to the United States State Department, should be done in the case of a hostage crisis, for example? Create a guide explaining such policies.

Journalism/Teaching with The Times- Create a timeline on a wall in your classroom following the news about one of the countries mentioned in the featured Times article and its place in the war against terrorism. Include headlines, news articles or summaries, maps, photographs, and anything else that represents the topic. You might have a multi-tiered timeline on the wall, with each tier focusing on a different country mentioned in the article. Include information from The New York Times as well as from other news organizations around the globe [Ecola Newsstand (http://www.ecola.com) offers English language newspapers from around the world.]

Media Studies- The current movie "Black Hawk Down" focuses on past American intervention in Somalia. Read reviews of the movie, as well as other recently released movies about military conflicts in which the United States was involved. How do these movies serve as historic accounts? What inaccuracies may exist? How is the United States portrayed? How are other countries portrayed? How do you think movies inform (correctly or incorrectly) public opinion about war in general and about other countries?

Mathematics- Investigate how much money has been spent on United States military strikes in Afghanistan. Break down the totals by categories such as artillery, planes and other transportation, troop costs, etc. Then, research similar projected costs that may be spent in similar military campaigns in the countries mentioned in the article. Create a poster enumerating the ratios of these different campaigns, comparing them to military costs in Afghanistan.

Technology- Create an illustrated timeline or a book tracing the history of warplanes, such as the B-1 and the B-52. Include basic details about the body types, military capabilities, and special features for different maneuvers.

Copyright 2002
The New York Times Company

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