Rhetoric of the Gulf War
It was August 2,1990, in an effort to make his country whole again that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Kuwait is a small country, and within four hours he controlled not only the region, but also 24% of the world's oil supplies. It seemed as if his next target was Saudi Arabia. This was the exigent that the United States used to get involved in the affair. Under the claim that Saudi Arabia had asked for their assistance, the U.S. set a deadline of January 15, 1991, demanding all Iraq forces out of Kuwait. We were told that Saddam Hussein ignored the warning, which triggered Desert Shield, or the build-up of troops in the region and eventually led to Desert Storm, an all-out attack to free Kuwait. It wasn't just the U.S. who got involved however. According to the Desert Storm web site, the Bush Administration involved the U.N. in an effort to bypass Congress. Constitutionally they are the only one's who can declare war be it foreign or domestic in the United States. Congress would eventually be involved, but the result was 28 countries standing against Iraq and its population of 17 million. On the U.S. home front was an economic recession. This according to the St. Louis Pos
Rhetorically I found the speech to be a good example of Campbell and Jamieson's Presidential War Rhetoric. The formula is well suited to the changing needs of modern presidents. They tell us in Deeds Done With Words that this genre will continue to exist as long as we have the constitutional provisions separating the war powers to imply a cooperative rhetorical process in which presidents request and recommend and Congress authorize. In the fourth strategy, rhetoric justifies the use of force and seeks to legitimize the Presidents assumptions of power as commander and chief. To justify force Bush states, "While the world waited, Saddam Hussein systematically raped, pillaged, and plundered a tiny nation-no threat to his own. He subjected the people of Kuwait to unspeakable atrocities, and among those maimed and murdered-innocent children. While the world waited, Saddam sought to add to the chemical weapons arsenal he now possesses and infinitely more dangerous weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear weapon." This rhetoric seeks to demonize Saddam Hussein as a vicious, irrational savage who not only rapes, and murders, but also seeks to destroy the world with nuclear weapons. Force is justified because we're saving the very planet we live on. To legitimize his assumption of power as commander and chief the President declares "When the troops we've sent in finish their work, I'm determined to bring them home as soon as possible. Tonight, as our forces fight, they and their families are in our prayers." I think he's exerting his control over the situation and promising his nation this will not be another Vietnam. Former President George Bush followed all five rhetorical war-making strategies that most American presidents have used to mobilize Congressional, and public support. His greatest success came from exhorting commitment and justifying force, in my opinion because he was able to use language, and especially emotion to make his arguments. Of course world peace never occurred, the United States has involved itself in many conflicts, and even a war since the time of his speech. Bush did exactly what the history of war speeches had taught him however, he presented it as a momentous Jamieson and Campbell claim legitimating is the central persuasive purpose of war rhetoric. To fight a war successfully you need your government and the people within that government to support you. Out of this need, five rhetorical strategies, as mentioned earlier, must be followed. First, the determination to resort to force is presented as a momentous decision that results from deliberate and thoughtful consideration. Second, forceful intervention is justified through a chronology or narrative from which claims are drawn that the nation, or perhaps the world, is perilously threatened. The third strategy is to exhort the audiences' t
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1930
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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