Thursday January 13, 2005

Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

Surprise, surprise. There are no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. US expert weapons inspection teams have ended their search for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq, having discovered what most of the world has known for years - Iraq had no stockpiles of weapons and its nuclear program was non-existent. This casts huge doubts on the US intelligence, which was used to assure a skeptical world that WMD existed on such a scale it posed a threat to world security. It also questions the validity of George W. Bush’s presidency and the reason he went to war, and why so many thousands of innocent are dead. His administration is still insisting weapons might have been moved out of Iraq before the war or are still hidden somewhere in the Iraqi desert. Mr. Bush is under attack from a leading Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, who says, “After a search that has consumed nearly two years and millions of dollars, and a war that has cost thousands of lives, no weapons of mass destruction have been found -- nor has any evidence been uncovered that such weapons were moved to another country. … President Bush has refused to concede what has been obvious for months -- the primary justification for the invasion of Iraq was not supported by fact. … Now that the search is finished, President Bush needs to explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long, about the reasons for war.”

Lesson & plan in Word.doc     Example Class Handout in .pdf

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about the search for WMD in Iraq / weapons inspectors / reasons for war in Iraq / the international threat of Iraqi WMD / George W. Bush's presidency / lost lives / intelligence and misinformation …
To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. REASONS FOR WAR BRAINSTORM: Brainstorm what students remember about going to war in Iraq and the claims the Bush administration made (weapons stockpiles, the 40-minute threat, nuclear and biological weapons programs...). Students discuss what's on the board in pairs / groups. Take a vote to see if anyone has changed their minds on the legitimacy of war in Iraq since its start.

3. BUSH’S OTHER LEGACIES: During a prime time press conference on April 13, President Bush was asked to name a mistake that he has made since taking office and what he has learned from it. Bush, who was unable to answer the question, admitted "maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with [a mistake]." But weeks later, Bush still hasn't answered the question. Here are some classic mistakes a President of the United States should not make, but which George W. Bush did. Students discuss / laugh / cry / get angry about the ones they know of:

- Failing to build a real international coalition prior to the Iraq invasion, forcing the US to shoulder the full cost and consequences of the war.
- Not equipping troops in Iraq with adequate body armor or armored HUMVEES.
- Making a case for war which ignored intelligence that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.
- Predicting along with others in his administration that US troops would be greeted as liberators in Iraq.
- Predicting Iraq would pay for its own reconstruction.
- Wildly underestimating the cost of the war.
- Announcing that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, below a "Mission Accomplished" banner - more U.S. soldiers have died in combat since Bush's announcement than before it.
- Having no real plan for the occupation of Iraq.
- Telling Americans there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
- Saying: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories."
- Ignoring the importance of the Middle East peace process, which has deteriorated with little oversight or strategy evident in the region.
- Undermining the War on Terrorism by preemptively invading Iraq.
- Failing to develop a specific plan for dealing with North Korea.
- Abandoning the United States' traditional role as an evenhanded negotiator in the Middle East peace process.
- Abandoning the Kyoto Treaty without offering an alternative for reducing greenhouse effect.

4. WMD BRAINSTORM: Write the following on the board -
nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction.
Brainstorm student feelings about these weapons and write them on the board. Students discuss what's written on the board.

5. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
- The world new there were no weapons 2 years ago. vs. The US government had to look for them.
- No WMD means the war was a mistake. vs. Saddam was still a threat to world peace.
- George W. Bush lied to the world. vs. He was lied to by intelligence agencies.
- The war was still just. Millions of Iraqis are free. vs Thousands of Iraqis and coalition soldiers are dead.
- We should have listened to UN weapons inspectors who said there was no WMD. vs US weapons teams are better than UN weapons teams.
- George W. Bush should resign. vs. He is still needed for the war on terror.
- Donald Rumsfeld should resign. vs. He is still needed for the war on terror.
- George W. Bush should apologise to the world. vs But he's only doing his job.
- The war in Iraq has increased the war on terror. vs. September 11 did that.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘surprise’ and ‘mass’.

2. HEADLINE: Put the article headline on the board for students to talk about / predict / speculate. Pairs / groups formulate and present their own guesses as to the contents of the report.

3. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:

(a)  'WMD' means World Military Defence'.  T / F
(b)  Stockpiles of WMD have been found. T / F
(c)  US expert weapons inspection teams have ended their search for WMD.  T / F
(d)  United States intelligence agencies did an excellent job in providing accurate information on WMD to the Bush administration.  T / F
(e)  Iraq did not pose a serious threat to global security.  T / F
(f)  There being no WMD questions the validity of George W. Bush’s presidency. T / F
(g)  Evidence exists that weapons were moved to another country.  T / F
(h)  President Bush needs to explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long, about the reasons for war.  T / F 

4. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	weapons	government
(b)	mass	stores
(c)	destruction	arms
(d)	stockpiles	proof
(e)	doubts	give in
(f)	skeptical	enormous
(g)	administration	as clear as day
(h)	evidence	devastation
(i)	concede	uncertainties
(j)	obvious	unbelieving

5. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	surprise	attack from a leading Democrat
(b)	weapons of	for war
(c)	inspection teams have ended< /p>	such a scale
(d)	nuclear	by fact
(e)	This casts	surprise
(f)	existed on	been uncovered
(g)	Mr. Bush is under	program
(h)	nor has any evidence	their search
(i)	not supported	mass destruction
(j)	reasons	huge doubts on the US intelligence

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

No WMD in Iraq

Surprise, surprise. There are no __________ of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. US expert weapons inspection teams have ended their search for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq, having __________ what most of the world has known for years - Iraq had no stockpiles of weapons and its nuclear program was non-existent. This casts huge __________ on the US intelligence, which was used to assure a skeptical world that WMD existed on such a scale it __________ a threat to world security. It also questions the __________ of George W. Bush’s presidency and the reason he went to war, and why so many thousands of innocent are dead. His administration is still insisting weapons might have been moved out of Iraq before the war or are still hidden somewhere in the Iraqi desert. Mr. Bush is under attack from a leading Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, who says, “After a search that has __________ nearly two years and millions of dollars, and a war that has cost thousands of lives, no weapons of mass destruction have been found -- nor has any __________ been uncovered that such weapons were moved to another country. … President Bush has refused to concede what has been obvious for months -- the primary __________ for the invasion of Iraq was not supported by fact. … Now that the search is finished, President Bush needs to explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long, about the reasons for war.”

consumed weapons vaidity evidence discovered justification posed doubts

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonym exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. ‘SURPRISE’/ ‘MASS’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

2. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

3. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

4. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

5. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class. Back in pairs students discuss their findings.

6. ARTICLE DISCUSSION: Students ask each other the following questions based on the article:

(a)  What do you think of the news that there are no WMD?
(b)  How should George W, Bush explain this?
(c)  What has your position been on WMD over the past two years (since Colin Powell explained in detail about the existence of WMD in the UN)?
(d)  Should George W. Bush apologise or resign?
(e)  Should someone be made accountable for the huge lies and mistakes which have cost thousands of lives and destroyed a nation?
(f)  Was war against Iraq still OK because Saddam Hussein was a tyrant?
(g)  Is it possible WMD were buried in the desert or quickly taken to another country as the Bush administration is saying?
(h)  Does President Bush need to explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long, about the reasons for war?
(i)  Should George W, Bush be fired?
(j)  Is Bush a good leader?
(k)  How has Bush changed your country / the world?
(l) How will history judge George W. Bush?
(m)  Has President George W. Bush done anything that is praiseworthy in your eyes?
(n) Teacher’s additional questions

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on WMD. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. WMD POSTER: Create a poster outlining the danger of WMD.

4. LETTER TO GEORGE W.: Write a letter to US president George W. Bush advising him how to explain this to the world.

ANSWERS

TRUE/FALSE:

(a)  'WMD' means World Military Defence'.  F
(b)  Stockpiles of WMD have been found. F
(c)  US expert weapons inspection teams have ended their search for WMD.  T
(d)  United States intelligence agencies did an excellent job in providing accurate information on WMD to the Bush administration.  F
(e)  Iraq did not pose a serious threat to global security.  T
(f)  There being no WMD questions the validity of George W. Bush’s presidency. T
(g)  Evidence exists that weapons were moved to another country.  F
(h)  President Bush needs to explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long, about the reasons for war.  T

DEFINITIONS:

a.	weapons (n)	(b) an instrument of attack or defense in combat, as a gun, missile, or sword
b.	mass (adj)	(a) done or carried out on a large scale
c.	destruction (n)	(a) the condition of having been destroyed
d.	biological (adj)	(b) relating to or living organisms
e.	stockpiles (n)	(b) a very large supply of something stored for future use,
f.	skeptical (adj)	(a) having doubt or many questions about the truth of something
g.	validity (n)	(b) having legal force or a solid reason for doing something
h.	concede (v)	(a) to accept you are wrong, or that you lost
i.	justification (n)	(a) the good reasons and legality for doing something
j.	invasion (n)	(b) when an army from one country tries to take over another country

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	weapons	arms
(b)	mass	enormous
(c)	destruction	devastation
(d)	stockpiles	stores
(e)	doubts	uncertainties
(f)	skeptical	unbelieving
(g)	administration	government
(h)	evidence	proof
(i)	concede	give in
(j)	obvious	as clear as day

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	surprise	surprise
(b)	weapons of	mass destruction
(c)	inspection teams have ended	their search
(d)	nuclear	program
(e)	This casts	huge doubts on the US intelligence
(f)	existed on	such a scale
(g)	Mr. Bush is under	attack from a leading Democrat
(h)	nor has any evidence	been uncovered
(i)	not supported	by fact
(j)	reasons	for war

GAP FILL:

No WMD in Iraq

Surprise, surprise. There are no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. US expert weapons inspection teams have ended their search for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq, having discovered what most of the world has known for years - Iraq had no stockpiles of weapons and its nuclear program was non-existent. This casts huge doubts on the US intelligence, which was used to assure a skeptical world that WMD existed on such a scale it posed a threat to world security. It also questions the validity of George W. Bush’s presidency and the reason he went to war, and why so many thousands of innocent are dead. His administration is still insisting weapons might have been moved out of Iraq before the war or are still hidden somewhere in the Iraqi desert. Mr. Bush is under attack from a leading Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, who says, “After a search that has consumed nearly two years and millions of dollars, and a war that has cost thousands of lives, no weapons of mass destruction have been found -- nor has any evidence been uncovered that such weapons were moved to another country. … President Bush has refused to concede what has been obvious for months -- the primary justification for the invasion of Iraq was not supported by fact. … Now that the search is finished, President Bush needs to explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long, about the reasons for war.”