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Alpha Stage
Questioning Iraq's Leader
November 29, 2006









The New York Times is running an article entitled “Bush Adviser’s Memo Cites Doubt About Iraqi
Leader.” President Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley wrote a memo questioning Iraqi
President Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s ability to control the violence in his nation. According to the article,
the memo states:

His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying
to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change…But the reality on the streets of Baghdad
suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his
capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.
Read the article!!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Students:

  • Ask your students if they think it’s important for a counselor to know how their campers feel
    most of the time. (For example, “Is it important for your camp counselor to know if you’re
    sad?”) Why?
  • Do your students think that counselors have the ability to prevent fighting between
    children? How? Can the best counselors prevent fights, even when they are not around?
    Why/why not? How?

  • Do your students think that it’s possible for a counselor to want to stop fighting between
    students but not have the ability to do so? Why/why not?
  • Ask your students how the counselor could effectively stop fighting. Students could
    draw a picture of what somebody should do to stop a fight.

  • If a lot of fighting occurs between a counselor’s campers on the playground, do your students
    think that the counselor should be fired? What if the counselor is trying his/her best to stop the
    fighting? Why/why not?
  • You could encourage students to offer answers supporting different sides. Perhaps,
    draw a T Chart on the board and label one side “should be fired“ and the other side,
    “should not be fired.”

Discussion-Starters for Older Students:

  • Ask your students to define the following words: “memo,” “intentions,” “reality,” and
    “misrepresent.”

  • Ask your students to explain their intentions behind something that they did recently. Did their
    behavior allow them to fulfill their intentions? Why/why not?
  • You could ask your students to answer these questions in a quick write.

  • President Bush is set to meet the Iraqi President in Jordan today. Tell your students to pretend
    that they are advisers to Mr. Bush. What should he discuss with the Iraqi President? Should
    President Bush blame Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for the violence in Iraq?
  • Students might discuss and research possible answers to these questions in groups and
    then report back to the class.

  • Ask your students to consider the quotation written above, “…the reality on the streets of
    Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions,
    or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”
  • Ask them to explain this text in their own words. Why do they think that Stephen J.
    Hadley wrote the memo in this way? Do they think that Mr. Hadley is necessarily calling
    Mr. Maliki incompetent? Why/why not? What do you think?

  • Tell your students to imagine that President Bush has come to them asking for advice. The
    President has decided that Mr. Maliki is not a very good leader for Iraq. The President wants to
    know if he should push to have Maliki replaced. How could he try to achieve this objective?
    The President wants to know the potential negative consequences of working to have Maliki
    replaced. What are some of the positive consequences.
  • You could open these questions up to class debate or have students write a persuasive
    essay to answer them.
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