[B] Students prepare a rough layout and draft some content for a magazine feature on Iraq.

[C] The page layout should include:

• The size and location of the headline
• The location of two photos
• Space for 3 of the suggested areas of content.

[D] Possible content:

1. A summary of the present situation.

2. Costs and benefits of the military action.

3. Quotes from individuals expressing their opinions.

4. A brief history of relations between the countries involved.

5. A map of the area or a summary of what nearby countries think.

Plenary
Whose voices are missing from evaluations of the progress of the war?
Whose opinions do we hear the most?

Teachers' Background

• Saddam Hussein came to prominence in 1959 when he tried to assassinate the Iraqi president. He came to power in 1979 after leading an internal coup. He eliminated opponents by having them shot.

• After the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution, relations between Iran and Iraq deteriorated. Iraq invaded, starting a costly eight-year war.

• Worried by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the West's relations with Iraq warmed throughout the Iran Iraq war. This culminated in military intervention on the Iraqi side.

• On 18 July 1988, Iran accepted a UN-proposed truce, in the face of continuing - and increasingly Western-backed - Iraqi offensives.

• In August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait. Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait of keeping oil prices low and pumping more than its quota from the two countries' shared oil field.

• An international force pushed Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. 60 -100 thousand Iraqi troops died. 148 thousand deserted. On 2 March the UN Security Council passed a resolution establishing the terms of the ceasefire. These required Iraq to disclose information about any stored chemical and biological weapons.

• The US and Britain are patrolled two so-called "no-fly zones" over northern and southern Iraq. These protected Saddam's internal opponents from air strikes.

• For 12 years, the country struggled under UN-imposed sanctions.

• In a population of 23 million, many remained desperately poor and at least half of the adult males were unemployed.

• On 20 March 2003 military action codenamed Operation Iraqi Freedom began with a missile attack on Saddam Hussein.

• On Tuesday 15 April 2003 the US declared that coalition forces were in control of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

• Coalition forces suffered over 150 casualties. Estimates suggest thousands of Iraqi casualties, but figures are still very unclear.