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Alpha Stage
Iran's Role Certain
February 15, 2007









The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Bush Declares
Iran's Arms Role in Iraq is Certain."

The article begins, "President Bush said Wednesday that he was
certain that factions within the Iranian government had supplied Shiite
militants in Iraq with deadly roadside bombs that had killed American
troops. But he said he did not know whether Iran’s highest officials
had directed the attacks."

Referring to the highest levels of Iranian leadership, the President
asked, "what’s worse, them ordering it and it happening, or them not
ordering it and its happening?”
Read the Article!!
Watch the Press Conference!!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children

  • Ask your students if they've ever been happy when they saw
    somebody else get in trouble? Why were they happy?
  • Write the words, "Be Good" on the board and then ask
    students to identify words that begin with each letter of
    the two words on the board With higher level classes
    you might even tell students that the words all have to
    relate to the same topic.

  • Do your child(ren) think it's right to be happy when they see
    someone else get in trouble? Why/why not? Encourage them to
    explain their thoughts.
  • Consider asking students to identify reasons why they
    might be happy when somebody gets punished and
    reasons why they might not be happy when somebody
    gets punished.

  • Ask your students if they've ever guessed that something was
    true but not known for sure? What did they guess? Why did
    they guess that it was true?
  • Detectives must make these kinds of assumptions all the
    time. You might consider playing a game of "Twenty
    Questions" with your students, in which somebody
    thinks of a person, place or thing and the others have to
    ask "Yes" and "No" questions to discover the item.

  • Do your students think there's anybody in the world who
    knows everything? Is it possible to know everything?
    Why/why not?
  • Ask your students what lesson can be learned from the
    fact that nobody can know everything.


Discussion-Starters for Older Children

  • Vocabulary terms to discuss: Militant; Accusation;
    Preposterous; and, Deterioration.

  • Ask your students if they think that the American people should
    trust claims that President Bush is making about intelligence
    reports. Remember that at one point the President argued that
    Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which Iraq did not
    appear to have. Why does it matter if we trust his claims or
    not? What if we don't trust the President's claims and they
    prove to be correct?
  • Ask students to develop answers to these questions with
    a series of cause and effect charts, sentence fragments
    identifying causes and effects linked together by arrows.

  • Pose: Imagine that you were advisors to Democratic Speaker
    of the House Nancy Pelosi. President Bush has come to
    Speaker Pelosi for advice. He wants to know what to do about
    Iran. Evidence indicates that Iran is supporting individuals in
    Iraq fighting against U.S. soldiers. Iran is in the process of
    developing nuclear capabilities. The U.S. army is struggling in
    Iraq and Afghanistan. What should the Speaker advise the
    President?
  • Consider asking students to develop "Reports to the
    Speaker" in groups of two or three.

  • According to the article, Columbia University Professor Gary
    Sick said there was a risk of "accidental war." “If anything
    goes wrong, if something happens, there’s an unexplained
    explosion and we kidnap an Iranian, and the Iranians respond to
    that somehow, this could get out of control.” Ask your child
    (ren) to explain this statement in their own words. What do
    your students think that we could do to avoid "accidental war?"
  • These questions might prove for a very interesting class
    discussion.
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