Gulf War
Map of the Middle East | Activity 1 | Activity 2
The Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm, was a war of religious fervor. Or was it? Did Saddam Hussein want to make his country whole again, or was this a ploy to garner the oil reserves? In 1990 he invaded Kuwait and in less than four hours he had taken the country. Now he controlled 24 percent of the world's oil supplies. It seemed as if his next target was Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia asked the United States for protection. The U.S. set a deadline for all Iraq forces to be out of Kuwait. Technology played a big part in our victory that was celebrated in 1991.
The Gulf War (Frontline) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf
Desert Storm http://www.desert-storm.com
Desert Storm Pictures and Links http://www.eskimo.com/~ktlange/storm.html
Operation Desert Storm http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/desert_storm.htm
Chronology of the Gulf War http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/cron
Weapons http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/weapons
Neurological Dysfunction in Gulf War Veterans http://www.desert-storm.com/soldiers/report1.html
Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm: Women Were There http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvetsds.html
Persian Gulf War (what experts thought about the war) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/decision.html
Women in U.S. Military During Desert Shield/Desert Storm http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq48-3f.htm
Key People
Richard Cheney http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/cheney/1.html
General Norman Schwarzkopf http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/schwarzkopf/1.html
Colin Powell http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/powell/1.html
Tariq Aziz http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/aziz/1.html
Saddam Hussein http://www.geocities.com/tchase_2000/Iraq.html
Activity 1
| Objective |
Student will become expert groups in an area of the Gulf War and present five facts to the class. |
| Procedure |
- Students will break into groups of two or three.
- Each group will select one question or statement from the list below:
- Give a chronology of the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm.
- What were the key factors that brought the United States into the war?
- Who were the main "players" in the war? In other words, what people were decision makers and what decisions did they make?
- How was technology used to help the United States win the war?
- What were some problems that the American soldiers encountered? (personal, medical, etc.)
- How does this war compare to other wars that the United States has fought? (duration, loss of life, etc.)
- What was the role of women in the Desert Storm conflict?
- Students will find five key facts that they deem important about the question they have selected and write them on the worksheet provided. (Click here to get the worksheet.)
- Students will compose five questions -- one pertaining to each of their five main facts -- and write them on the worksheet. The questions from each group will be used as the final test for this section.
- Students will determine a way to teach the rest of the class the five facts that they believe are important about their topic. They should think about how they learn best and try to model that in their presentation. The students could use multimedia presentations, posters, skits, hands-on activities, commercials, public service announcements, etc. The type of presentation is up to the group.
- Students can make a study sheet to pass out to the students.
|
| Evaluation |
The teacher will give a test made up of the questions that each group has turned in. That test will be graded according to the standards of the school.
|
Top
Activity 2
| Objective |
Students will write a paper explaining how an American soldier might have felt in the Gulf War. |
| Procedure |
- Students will read the article titled "Interview With an Iraqi Soldier: The View From the Other Side of the Jebel [Hill]." They can either click on the Web site at http://www.desert-storm.com/soldiers/int.html or you can use the reprint in this guide.
- After students have read this article and have done some research as suggested in the above activities, they should write a narrative about how they might feel as an American soldier serving in Operation Desert Storm.
- Students may want to interview a person who actually served in Desert Storm to get ideas about how soldiers really felt while serving.
|
| Evaluation |
Click here to get rubric for evaluation. |
Top
|
Previewing Activity