Jessica Badia CAS 137H President George W.

Bush Declares War on Terror On September 11, 2001 America was attacked and left speechless. The World Trade Center and the Pentagon were successfully attacked while the Capitol building was unsuccessfully attacked. The devastating amount of deaths and destruction caused left the country in a terrible state, which meant that the president, George W. Bush, needed to address all Americans about what the nation was going to do in response to the attacks. Nine days after the attacks, on September 20, 2001, President Bush addressed the situation in front of a joint session of Congress, but he was also speaking to the entire nation through the media. In his speech, he stated that the country would be going into war. In order to get everyone to support him and the entire government, he had to use a large amount of ethos, pathos, and logos. He needed to make sure that every citizen of America liked him no matter what political party he or she was a part of and in spite of the unfavorable way that he went into office (beating Al Gore though Gore won the popular vote). He also needed to make sure to address the country with everyones state of mind in his thoughts so that he could get them emotionally attached to his statements. Lastly, he needed to be smart with what he put into his speech. It was very important for the president to make statements that would cause Americans to feel angry about the attacks without feeling angry towards the president. Though I stated that President Bush used ethos, pathos, and logos throughout the speech, I want to go through the speech chronologically instead of according to each method he used. This will make it easier to follow along with the part of the speech that I am talking about, and will also help me point out how some parts of the speech use more than one rhetorical device without repeating the same part of the speech over and over again.

To start off, President Bush made a statement that inferred that the American people were the ones that provided the current state of the union through their reactions to the tragedy. The exact statement was, In the normal course of events, Presidents come to this Chamber to report on the state of the Union. Tonight, no such report is needed. It has already been delivered by the American people. Stating this at the beginning of the speech showed the importance of the citizens opinions and emotions in the decision to go to war. This is an example of the use of pathos in the speech. By telling the public that they were a large part of the decision, President Bush was making them feel important in the situation. In his introduction he also named a citizen of the U.S. who was a passenger on one of the planes. This uses both pathos and ethos. Naming a passenger gives a more direct emotional connection, because just saying passengers does not give the victims faces, but naming a man on one of the planes and then introducing his wife to the public puts a face to the passenger and makes it feel more real. That is the pathos part of it, giving the public a connection to the passenger. The ethos part is where President Bush made it clear to the public that he cared about each and every victim of the tragedy. Next, the President addressed the actions done in order to help with the tragedy. Talking about the American flag helped people get the feeling that it was a time to be patriotic in order to show support for the country and those who were coming together to help their fellow Americans, which shows another use of pathos. Also, bringing together different languages in his statement, We have seen the saying of prayers in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, proved that what happened had nothing to do with race or ethnicity. This is another pathos approach in which the president attempted to make the country feel unified with people of different backgrounds. As you can see, the use of pathos in the introduction was vital, because the audience needed to feel engaged in order to be inclined to keep listening.

In the next section of his speech, President Bush addressed the Congress reaction to the tragedies. By showing the support that Congress gave to the military and all of those in need at the time, Bush was able to gain support for the government because it showed how much they cared and build on his ethos as a part of the government. Moving from the support our government gave to the support other governments gave was even more inspiring. The support from other countries proved that America was not alone and also showed the impact the attacks of September 11th had on everyone, not only Americans. This also has to do with the fact that there were victims from 80 different nations. This brings the idea of unity to American minds, and during a time like that unity is very important not only within the nation, but also with other countries in order that Americans would not feel alone in their time of need. This once again falls into the category of pathos because of the role it has on American sentimentality. Bushs decision to mention an attack on America in 1941 but not explain the attack used both logos and pathos. The attack he was referring to was Pearl Harbor, and the fact that many Americans knew that without him further explaining it shows its great impact on society. An explanation was not needed because that attack devastated many and is something that kids learn extremely well in history class. This can be compared to the 9/11 attacks, because since Pearl Harbor, there had not been any other attacks on the U.S. Also, knowing how Pearl Harbor affected the society compares greatly to how these attacks affected the society. This comparison brought on the seriousness of what had happened. Al Qaida is to terror what the Mafia is to crime. This line is one of the most hardhitting lines in the speech. Being introduced to the terrorist organization that was believed to have coordinated the attacks was already a lot of information, but also hearing that they are one of the most dangerous terrorist groups and comparing them to the Mafia was hard to digest. Most

Americans knew what the Mafia was and what the Mafia was known for, so making a comparison to them made the information surreal. This was a use of logos in which the president intelligently chose to use a modern comparison at the time. It is like comparing them to the Crips and Bloods now. The Mafia was big at the time and this comparison was not going to be overlooked. Next, President Bush explained the harsh restrictions that the Taliban, which is the regime controlling Afghanistan with the support of Al Qaida, had on its citizens. This hit a nerve with Americans, because something that Americans were and still are very supportive of and proud of are their rights and freedoms, so hearing of an organization that did not allow for people to have rights makes Americans react harshly towards that organization. Bush went on to defend the Muslim religion and make it clear that the war on terror was not against the religion. He went on to state, The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. This direct statement to Muslims showed both that no one was against their religion, but against those who did wrong under the name of their religion. The word choice of hijack is an extremely logical choice because of the hijacking of the planes in the attacks. It shows that Al Qaida wanted to do much more than just kill people; they wanted to send a message, one that was not in support of the religion but in the want to change and control the religion. The actual details of the war finally come up towards the middle of the speech. The President already had the attention of the public, but it was now time to get their support. In order to do so, he approached the situation very truthfully and built up his credibility by using ethos. He made sure to tell Americans that the war was not going to be easy or short and that lives would be lost. This truthful instead of overly hopeful and positive approach helped the public feel like Bush was being very honest and that he was trustworthy. This was especially

important to establish because shortly after Bush announced that he was appointing Tom Ridge to the Office of Home Security, which could have been controversial amongst Americans who loved to vote for positions like that instead of being told who was going to be in such positions. In the Presidents conclusion, he mentioned an organization that people could get involved in so that they could help out in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Offering up a way for people to get involved helps bring everyone together and rally support. It is important to remind the public that the fight is for those who were lost and not just to take down Al Qaida. In his conclusion he also made sure to describe all of the measures that were going to be taken in order to prevent anything like the 9/11 attacks from happening again. After the attack, many Americans were very afraid of what was to come, so helping calm their fears by announcing all of the changes that were going to be made was a very good and logical choice. Overall, President George W. Bush used many different strategies in his speech that seemed to work in his favor. He was able to bring out the emotions of the public and gain their attention and support. He constantly stated questions that were in the minds of all Americans and then went on to answer them, which showed that he was there for them, and not for anyone else. Bush also addressed religion and race many times in order to prove that this war was a war on terror, not a war on religion. These, on top of many other strategies, helped President Bush establish the background to the war and state what was set for the future. The President addressed the nation nine days after the tragedy, so the nation was still hurting greatly, but it showed that though he did not make a hasty decision to go into war right away, he was ready to step up and defend our country no matter what. President Bush knew exactly what the situation was and how to approach finding a solution that everyone would be able to support, and through this speech, he was able to portray that.