History 492/692: The US-Iraq Wars

Prof. Edwin E. Moise
Office: Hardin 102
Office phones: 656-5369, 656-3153
Home phone: 654-7087
e-mail: eemoise@clemson.edu

Messages can be left in my mailbox in Hardin 124, or in the box on my office door.

Office Hours

    Monday     10:10-11:00, 2:30-3:20
    Tuesday    11:00-12:15
    Wednesday  10:10-11:00, 2:30-3:20
    Thursday   11:00-12:15
    Friday     10:10-11:00 

Course Objectives

We will start with the background of Arab civilization and the history of 20th century Iraq. The main body of the course will be devoted to the two wars the United States has fought in Iraq: the first in 1991, and the second beginning in 2003 and lasting up to the present. Military and political factors, and the role of the media, will all be considered. Since combat is still occurring and seems unlikely to end during this semester, discussion of current events will be highly relevant, and will occur frequently in class. Students may wish to get in the habit of reading the current news in the New York Times, which can be purchased on paper, or read for free online at http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/middleeast/index.html.

What goes into your grade

Your grade in the course will be based mainly on the written work I have assigned. You cannot do extra papers for extra credit. You can improve your grade a bit by participating in class discussion. The best way to pick up extra points is to argue against me in class; If you can point out to me that I have made a mistake you get two points extra in the gradebook. If you present a good clear argument that I am wrong about something, with evidence, then your grade may be boosted even if you do not succeed in convincing me.

I do not emphasize trivial factual details in this course. On tests and quizzes I will not ask you to name the Foreign Minister of Iraq, or to give the exact date of the Battle of Khafji. There are some facts you need to know, but they are more important things than dates and names.

The most important single part of your grade will be the course paper. You can write it on whatever topic you please, within the limits of the subject matter of this course. Most of the papers should be about eight to ten pages long typed double spaced (graduate students: fifteen to twenty pages). Longer papers acceptable.

For more detailed guidelines on the term paper, see Writing a Term Paper in Military History.

The paper is due Wednesday, December 7. It is late if I have not gotten it before I go home that day (definitely not before 4:30 PM, maybe later than that). There will be a five point penalty if it is handed in on December 8 or 9. The penalty will be fifteen points if it is not turned in by the time I go home on Friday, December 9.

You can have a pretty free choice of topics for this paper, within the limits of the subject matter of this course. You must come in and talk to me about your paper, and discuss the sources you will be using. It is not enough to say to me as we are walking out of the classroom one morning "Professor Moise, is it OK if I write about the Scuds?" You will need to talk things over with me for fifteen minutes or maybe half an hour, not just a few seconds. After we have talked, you must give me a written statement of your topic, with a list of the main sources you plan to use. There will be a five point penalty if you have not given this to me by October 10, and an additional five points if it is not in by October 19. If it still is not in by October 26, I will either give you yet another five-point penalty, or else simply hand you a sheet of paper telling you what topic you must write on, and what sources you must use.

If you bring in a preliminary draft of your paper ten days or so before it is due, I will read it and then tell you what needs changing. You can then go home and re-write it. This will almost certainly improve the grades of the few students who bother to take advantage of this offer, so don't be one of the lazy majority who don't start work on the paper until a week before it is due, and then have no time for re-writing.

The paper is worth 150 points. The other written work will be:     --Three (four for graduate students) newspaper research exercises, worth 40 points each.     --The midterm test (70 points) and the final exam (120 points), which will be mostly essay questions.     This adds up to 460 points for the course (500 for graduate students). The basic grade scale is that 90% (414 points) is the bottom of the A's, 80% (368 points) is the bottom of the B's, and so on. Sometimes I alter the scale in the students' favor, never against them. Thus 414 points is a guaranteed A-; 410 points might be an A-, if I end up scaling grades.

Academic Integrity Policy

Academic integrity requires that we not try to pass other people's work off as our own. The ways students have gotten into problems of academic dishonesty in courses like this, in past years, have been:

1) Large portions of a term paper copied from a book or web site, without any indication that the material was copied. Typically this involves both large amounts of material quoted word-for-word, without quotation marks, and also a serious shortage of source notes pointing to the book from which the material came. Often there are misleading source notes claiming the material came from some source other than the one from which it was actually copied word-for-word. These false source notes are especially strong evidence of academic dishonesty.

2) Whole term paper obtained from some source (a commercial term paper service, or the Internet, or the collection of term papers that one of the fraternities used to have, and may still have).

3) One student copies another student's 40-point newspaper research exercise, maybe changing a few words and substituting synonyms, but leaving the two papers still so similar that it is obvious the resemblance could not be coincidence. I would be likely to bring charges both against the student who copied and the student who allowed his or her paper to be copied.

There are some ways in which it is perfectly all right for students to help each other. If two students want to study together getting ready for a test, great. Only after I have handed out the questions does help on a test become improper. But if two people work together on a newspaper research exercise, and turn in papers that are very similar because each has been getting a lot of help from the other in writing it, both will be in deep trouble. If one of your fellow students asks to look at your paper, to get a better idea of how the assignment was to be done, please say no. They should come to me to ask for further explanations of the assignment, rather than looking at a completed paper to give them their clues. If too papers are so similar it is obvious the author of one must have seen the other, I will file charges.

Policy on late work

Attendance policy

If I am Late

Assigned Reading

Most of the reading for this course will come from the Internet or the Library. Note that Clemson University has paid hefty fees to allow everyone browsing the Internet through the Clemson computer system to use LexisNexis, and the ProQuest archive containing every article published in the New York Times from 1850 to 2001, accessible through the Library's articles access page.

There are two books students should buy.

The Modern History of Iraq, second edition, by Phebe Marr

It Doesn't Take a Hero, by H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Course Outline

The following course outline is tentative. It may be, and probably will be, modified somewhat by class request. Each day, items marked >>> are required reading. Note that where the topic listed for a particular day's class is a particular period in the history of Iraq, I will often also comment in class that day about what relevant things were happening in other countries during that period.

Aug 24: Introduction to the course.

Aug 26: The background of Arab civilization, and of Iraq
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 3-19
    Iraq: Sunni and Shi'i

Aug 29: From British rule to the Iraqi monarchy, 1920-1936
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 21-49

August 31: The later years of the Monarchy, 1937-1958
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 49-80

September 2: The Qasim Era, 1958-1963
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 81-112

September 5: Transition, 1963-1968
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 113-138

September 7: The Ba'th Party in Power, 1968-1979
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 139-176

September 9: Saddam Husain and The Iran-Iraq War
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 177-216

Sep 12: U.S. Policy
    >>> Schwarzkopf, It Doesn't Take a Hero, pp. 311-336

Sept 14: Iraq invades Kuwait, August 1990
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 217-233
    >>> Schwarzkopf, It Doesn't Take a Hero, pp. 337-346

Sept 16: The United States Reacts
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 233-235
    >>> Schwarzkopf, It Doesn't Take a Hero, pp. 346-380

Sept 19, 21: Preparing for War
    >>> Schwarzkopf, It Doesn't Take a Hero, pp. 381-472

September 23: The argument over the war.

Hand in media research exercise. You can use articles from newspapers on microfilm in the library (level 2, microfilm reading room) or articles from news magazines in bound volumes in the library (level 1), or you can use newspaper or magazine articles or transcripts of news broadcasts found on the Internet. Please only use items that come from clearly identified news organizations. Please select at least four items (graduate students: six items) published between January 1 and January 15, 1991 (the nominal date may be a bit later if you are using a weekly newsmagazine) dealing with the arguments over the upcoming war, and predictions about what it would be like. You can look at arguments for and against the war and/or predictions of what the war will be like. Write an essay of about two pages (typed double spaced) about what you found. How did the media portray the arguments and/or the forthcoming military action? Say what there was in the articles that you found interesting or surprising. Evaluate them for bias: is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to think that the facts may be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? Do they use loaded language? Notice the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said, that you consider biased. Please note that saying something might happen is not the same as predicting that it will happen. I want to see one essay based on several articles, not a string of essentially separate mini-essays, each based on a single article. Try to select articles that will allow you to have some unifying themes in your essay.

Please give source notes. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have a list at the end, if I can’t tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing in which sentence or paragraph of your paper. If your source had numbered pages, give page numbers in your source notes. I don’t care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what I need to know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the name of the author if it was given, the title of the article, the title of the publication, and the date and page, is OK. If you found the articles on the Internet, say so, and say where.

Hand in media research exercise September 30. Look at at least four articles published between January 20 and February 10, 1991 (if you are using articles from weekly newsmagazines, use issues dated February 4 or February 11), dealing with the air war against Iraq. Aside from that, follow the instructions for the first media exercise.

September 30, October 3: The Ground War
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 237-239
    >>> Schwarzkopf, It Doesn't Take a Hero, pp. 501-547

October 5: Summary discussion of the war

October 7: MIDTERM TEST

October 10: Cease-fire and Aftermath
    >>> Schwarzkopf, It Doesn't Take a Hero, pp. 548-74, 578-85
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 239-241

October 12: Suppressing rebellion in Iraq
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 241-265

October 14: Iraq under international sanctions, and the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
    >>> Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 265-303

No Class October 17 (Fall Break)

From this point onward, assigned reading, which will be added to this syllabus later, will be almost entirely on the Internet.

October 19: September 11, Afghanistan, and the "War on Terror"
    At the time of the September 11 attacks, Al Qaeda was based mostly in Afghanistan. The government of Afghanistan, and most of the country, were controlled by the Taliban, which was allied with Al Qaeda. But there was a coalition of warlords called the Northern Alliance fighting against the Taliban. The United States joined with the Northern Alliance in attacking the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.
    >>> James Dao and Thom Shanker, "Special Forces, On the Ground, Aid the Rebels", in The New York Times, October 31, 2001. I suggest you go to ProQuest through the Library's articles access page.
    >>> Jon Lee Anderson, "The Surrender: Double agents, defectors, disaffected Taliban, and a motley army battle for Kunduz.", in The New Yorker, December 10, 2001. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Magazines and Journals.
    >>> Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, "Afghans' Retreat Forced Americans to Lead a Battle", in The New York Times, March 10, 2002. I suggest you go to ProQuest through the Library's articles access page.

October 21: The Bush adminstration decides to disarm Iraq: 2002
    >>> Steven R. Weisman, "A Long, Winding Road to a Diplomatic Dead End", in The New York Times, March 17, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.

October 24: Presenting the case to the world: early 2003
    >>> In President Bush's State of the Union address, January 28, 2003, read the section on Iraq, in the second half of the speech.
    >>> Colin Powell, Speech to the United Nations Security Council, February 5, 2003

October 26, 28: The last stages of the argument over the war. The U.S. fails to get a second resolution from the U.N. Security Council.
    >>> Adlai E. Stevenson III, "Different Man, Different Moment," New York Times, February 7, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> Nicholas D. Kristof, "War and Wisdom," New York Times, February 7, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> The Financial Times, London, February 17, 2003, "Washington shrugs off protests as war preparations continue". You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: European News Sources.
    >>> John H. Kelly, "Decades of evidence back use of force against Saddam", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 17, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> New York Times Editorial, February 18, 2003, "Reuniting the Security Council". You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> Denver Post Editorial, February 18, 2003 "Receiving the message". You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> Jesse Jackson, "Rising Tide Against War", The Gazette (Montreal), February 18, 2003, p. A23. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> Radio Address by President Bush, March 1, 2003.
    >>> "Cheney Says U.S. Justified in Attacking Iraq," Associated Press, March 16, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: News Wires.

    >>> George Monbiot, "A wilful blindness: Why can't liberal interventionists see that Iraq is part of a bid to cement US global power?", March 11, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: European News Sources.
    >>> "Saudis Concede to US Demands," Financial Times (London), March 10, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: European News Sources.
    >>> "Annan Says U.S. Will Violate Charter if It Acts Without Approval," New York Times, March 11, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: North/South America News Sources.
    >>> "Bush and Allies will Meet to Seek Ways to Sway U.N.," New York Times, March 15, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: North/South America News Sources.

Graduate students only: Hand in media research exercise October 28. Look at at least six articles published between March 1 and March 18, 2003 (if you are using articles from weekly newsmagazines, the cover dates will be a little later), dealing with the arguments over the upcoming war, and predictions about what it would be like. Aside from that, follow the instructions for the first media exercise. Please note that saying something might happen is not the same as predicting that it will happen.

October 31: The war begins: March 19-20, 2003; Air attack.
    >>> Speech by President Bush, March 17, 2003
    >>> Department of Defense News Briefing, March 21, 2003, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and CJCS General Richard Myers.
    >>> Department of Defense News Briefing, March 22, 2003.
    >>> Jon Lee Anderson, "Ill Winds: Tomakawks, Bunker Busters, and Dust Storms Afflict the Iraqi Capital", in The New Yorker, April 7, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Magazines and Journals.
    --- (Optional, but you might find it interesting): Jon Lee Anderson, "The Bombing of Baghdad: The View from the Banks of the Tigris", The New Yorker, March 31, 2003. Mostly this is what it was like for an American reporter in Baghdad waiting for the war, and the U.S. bombing, to begin. The last five paragraphs are on the first days of the bombing. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Magazines and Journals.

November 2: Ground war in southern Iraq
    >>> John Kifner, "Constant Iraqi Attacks are Holding Up the Allied Forces Trying to Reach Baghdad," New York Times, March 27, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: North/South America News Sources: New York Times.
    >>> Bernard Weintraub, "Army Reports Iraq is Moving Toxic Arms to Its Troops," New York Times, March 28, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: North/South America News Sources: New York Times.

November 4: Northern and Western Iraq
    >>> Eric Schmitt and David Rohde, "With Smaller Operation Than First Planned, U.S. Opens Northern Front," New York Times, March 27, 2003, p. 6. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> Jeffrey Goldberg, "Waiting at the Front: The Mood of the Kurds is One of Anticipation - and Fear." The New Yorker, April 7, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Magazines and Journals.
    >>> Jeffrey Goldberg, "Wartime Friendships: Near the Front Lines, Iraq's Feuding Opposition Groups Meet to Plot the Future." The New Yorker, April 14, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Magazines and Journals.

November 7: The fall of Baghdad "Update on Journalists Caught in Crossfire", CENTCOM press release, April 8, 2003.
    >>> John Lee Anderson, "The Collapse: A Regime Disappears and Chaos Ensues." The New Yorker, April 21, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Magazines and Journals.

Hand in media research exercise November 9. Look at at least two articles published between March 25 and April 4, 2003 (if you are using articles from weekly newsmagazines, the cover dates will be a little later), discussing what the fighting in Baghdad would be like when the U.S. ground troops got to Baghdad, and at least two articles published between April 8 and April 15 discussing what happened when the U.S. troops actually did get into Baghdad. Aside from that, follow the instructions for the first media exercise. Please note that saying something might happen is not the same as predicting that it will happen.

November 9: The occupation gets organized
    >>> William Langewiesche, "Welcome to the Green Zone", Atlantic Monthly, November 2004.

November 11: Resistance revives
    >>> Continue reading "Welcome to the Green Zone" (listed under November 9).
    >>> Scott Taylor, "Hostage in Iraq: Five Days in Hell"

November 14: Reconstruction in an environment of ongoing guerrilla warfare
    >>> Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Attacks Force Retreat From Wide-Ranging Plans for Iraq," The Washington Post, December 28, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: North/South America News Sources: Washington Post.
    >>> Robin Wright and Daniel Williams, "U.S. Scrambles to Salvage Transition," The Washington Post, January 16, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: World News: North/South America News Sources: Washington Post.

November 16: Hunting for weapons of mass destruction, and arguing over the merits of the war
    --- (optional reading): Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD, 30 September 2004, Key Findings

November 18: Resistance: Falluja (Fallujah)
    >>> Ian Fisher, "U.S. Force Said to Kill 15 Iraqis During an Anti-American Rally," New York Times, April 30, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> Amy Waldman, "Guilty or Not, U.S. Is Blamed In Mosque Blast," New York Times, July 2, 2003. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> John F. Burns and Erik Eckholm, "In Western Iraq, Fundamentalists hold U.S. at Bay," New York Times, August 29, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers.
    >>> Nir Rosen, "Letter from Falluja: Home Rule: A Dangerous Excursion into the Heart of the Sunni Opposition." The New Yorker, July 5, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Magazines and Journals: New Yorker.
    --- (optional reading): Capt. James T. Cobb, 1LT Christopher A. LaCour, and SFC William H. Hight, “The Fight for Fallujah: TF 2-2 in FSE AAR: Indirect Fires in the Battle of Fallujah”, Field Artillery, March-April 2005, pp. 23-28. The discussion of white phosphorus is on page 26.
    --- (optional reading): Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, signed by the United States in 1993 and ratified by the United States in 1997. Article I, section 5, clearly forbids the use of incapacitating agents like CS, which was widely used by the United States in the Vietnam War. Article II, Definitions, contains the language that some people are interpreting as forbidding white phosphorus. But the Annex on Chemicals, giving a lot of specific examples of the sorts of chemicals that are prohibited, seems to me to indicate that white phosphorus is not the sort of thing this treaty forbids.

November 21: Resistance: the Mahdi Army
    >>> John F. Burns, "7 U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq as a Shiite Militia Rises Up," New York Times, April 5, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.
    >>> Jeffrey Gettleman, "At Word of U.S. Foray, a Baghdad Militia Erupts," New York Times, April 7, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.
    >>> Jeffrey Gettleman, "Ex-Rivals Uniting," New York Times, April 9, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.
    >>> Edward Wong, "Cleric's Militia Upends Shiite Power Balance," New York Times, April 21, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.
    >>> John F. Burns, "Iraq Shiites Urge Cleric to Desist," New York Times, May 5, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.
    >>> Edward Wong and Christine Hauser, "Militiamen Go on the Offensive in Two Southern Cities," New York Times, May 9, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.
    >>> Dexter Filkins and James Glanz, "Fighters Loyal to Radical Cleric Start Pullout from 2 Iraq Cities," New York Times, June 6, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.
    >>> Edward Wong, "Shiite Cleric is Forming Party that May Play Role in Elections," New York Times, June 14, 2004. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.

November 28: The handover of sovereignty
    >>> Dexter Filkins, "New Government is Formed in Iraq as Attacks Go On", New York Times, June 2, 2004, p. 1. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.
    >>> Steven R. Weisman, "U.S. Has Leverage, But Wants to Show Iraqis Are in Charge", New York Times, June 29, 2004, p. 1. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times.

November 30: The Election of January 2005
    >>> Dexter Filkins, "Rising Violence and Fear Drive Iraq Campaigners Underground", New York Times, January 16, 2005, p. 1. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers
    >>> James Glanz, "New Election Issues: Electricity and Water", New York Times, January 26, 2005, p. 8. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers
    >>> John Burns, "Across Baghdad, Security Is Only an Ideal", New York Times, January 27, 2005, p. 13. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times
    >>> Dexter Filkins, "Defying Threats, Millions of Iraqis Flock to Polls", New York Times, January 31, 2005, p. 1. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times
    >>> John Burns and James Glanz, "Iraqi Shiites Win, but Margin is Less than Projection", New York Times, February 14, 2005, p. 1. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times

December 2, 5: Under the new government
    >>> Eric Schmitt, "New U.S. Commander Sees Shift in Military Role in Iraq", New York Times, January 16, 2005, p. 10. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers
    >>> Robert F. Worth, "In Iraq, a Tug of War Over the Truth", New York Times, April 24, 2005. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times
    >>> Dexter Filkins, "The Fall of the Warrior King", New York Times Magazine, October 23, 2005. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times
    >>> Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru, "Militias on the Rise Across Iraq,", Washington Post, August 21, 2005.
    >>> Sabrina Tavernise, “Unseen Enemy Is at Its Fiercest in a Sunni City.” New York Times, October 23, 2005. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times

December 7: Writing a Constitution
    No assigned reading.

DECEMBER 7: HAND IN TERM PAPERS

December 9: The current situation
    >>> Kirk Semple, “U.S. Forces Try New Approach: Raid and Dig In.” New York Times, December 5, 2005. You can find this on LexisNexis: Guided Search: General News: Major Papers: New York Times
    --- (optional): "Tension Within Iraqi Tribunal Taints Justice Hopes." This story, distributed by the Reuters news agency, showed up on the New York Times web site Thursday afternoon. It will probably be on LexisNexis soon, but it was not there yet at the time I checked. Judging by questions that were asked in class on Wednesday, people might be interested in it.
    --- (optional): Robert F. Worth and Edward Wong, "Politics, Iraqi Style: Slick TV Ads, Text Messaging and Gunfire" New York Times, December 11, 2005.