An Analysis of Bush's War on Terror Speech

My mom can tell me exactly where she was the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I didn't know what she meant until the day of September 11th, 2001. I can tell you exactly where I was that day, and everyone my age and older could tell you the exact place they were when they heard the news. One of my memories of that time includes President Bush's War on Terrorism speech.

I chose to analyze this speech because it came at a time when the United States’ citizens were confused, hurting and seeking justice, and I was one of those citizens. President Bush addressed these concerns and steered the nation in a direction about which many were and are still concerned. Bush uses emotional appeals to create a sense of unity throughout the live and television audience, emotional appeals such as saying "our nation is strong" and "You know what? We're not going to allow it."

A Neo-Aristotelian analysis examines not only emotional appeals by the speaker, but also organization, style, memory and delivery. Bush organizes his speech by question and answer. He introduces each point by saying “Americans are asking…” or “Americans wants to know…” This resonates well with the audience because these were indeed questions Americans want answered. Memory is also crucial to this speech. Toward the end of his speech, Bush repeats “We will come together,” many times. This reinforces his goal for unity and hopefulness within the United States. Also, Bush uses the term “War on Terror”, which is a term created specifically for this speech and is still used today when referring to the war in the Middle East. It is interesting to note that Bush calls his solution a “War on Terrorism” instead of a more peaceful sounding resolution. Bush’s delivery of this speech is intentional and precise. He pauses to emphasize some statements more than others.

What we can learn from Bush’s address is that the United States’ first reaction to terrorism is to bring justice to those responsible. Also, acts of terrorism can rally the victims together, and, in this case, are essentially ineffective towards achieving the terrorists goals. To see what I’m talking about, you can read the full transcript here: "Bush's War on Terror".