If you’re planning to talk about President Obama’s new military strategy in Afghanistan with your students or children, here are some New York Times and Learning Network resources to help you.
To focus on the president’s speech and the decision, you might show students not only the article on the speech, but also the graphic The State of the War in Afghanistan and the full text of the speech, along with the news analysis and editorial.
Other Times coverage of the speech and the decision includes The Caucus blog (such as the posts “Making the Case for War” and “Live Blogging Obama’s Afghan Speech”) and the Room for Debate post “Obama’s Surge Strategy in Afghanistan”.
The At War blog provides the military perspective on the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and other hotspots in the world.
Past Learning Network lesson plans that can be adapted for looking at the president’s plan and at the history of the war in Afghanistan include Guns, Butter or Both? Debating Troops vs. Development in Afghanistan and Strategy Shift. In the lesson Kabul’s Troubles, students research the political changes in Afghanistan’s history.
For a foreign policy and military strategy focus, see New Directions for Diplomacy (a 2008 lesson in which students compare the foreign policies of the Obama and Bush administrations) and War of Words, about the U.S. military’s “information war” and use of propaganda in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And if you wish to address the commitment and experiences of U.S. service members, see our lessons Soldiers’ Stories and Words of War: Comparing Veterans’ Experiences With War Poetry.
Add a comment: How are you addressing the Obama plan for Afghanistan with your students and children? What are they saying about it? What questions do they have?