A Rhetorical Analysis Of George W Bush 9/11 Speech

In his 2002 State of the Union address to Congress and the nation, George W. Bush attempts to rally the nation behind his strength as a leader and emphasize the strength of the country. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the country was vengeful against the terrorist group Al Qaeda and the countries that harbored them. Americans desperately wanted to stop the groups that caused thousands of innocent Americans to die. Bush confronted the nation’s fears by attacking them head-on, by promising to eradicate terrorism and enforce American values across the globe. Through an assertive tone, Bush convinces the nation of his strength as president and the strength of the country he leads. He outlines his three steps to success, highlights

He does this to show his and his country’s capabilities. An example is when Bush describes how he must renovate the military and the price America must pay to do that, “My budget includes the largest increase in defense spending”. By illustrating this, Bush shows how he is improving America’s chances in the war against terror and inspires confidence in his speech audience. Bush goes on to use a series of sentences that all begin with the same phrase, “We will” to improve the critically important area of homeland security, like when he says, “We will improve intelligence collection.” By doing this, Bush can successfully present specific steps that America will take to become more safe at home, and prevent any potential attacks in the future. By using “We Will”, Bush strengthens his image as a leader, and by continuously repeating the phrase, Bush is able to communicate his administration’s commitment to winning the war on terror. Thereby, the audience of his speech becomes aware of the steps that Bush is taking to guarantee their safety and thus become convinced of his abilities as a leader. By outlining his 3 goals for the country, Bush inspires confidence in Americans as his ability as a leader and America’s strength as a whole. By doing this, Bush manages to lay the groundwork for the audience to become more invested and want to continue to hear

An example of this is when Bush discusses the progress that the American Military has made in the war against terror in a series of different countries. He says the American military was able to stop a Bosnian terrorist threat to the US by “seiz[ing] [the] terrorists who were plotting to bomb our embassy”. He goes on to say the Navy is, “patrolling the coast of Africa to block the shipment of weapons.” By using numerous examples of progress that America is making across the globe, Bush is able to further demonstrate how effective he is as a leader and the strength of his administration. America isn’t only taking on the threat of Al Qaeda, but is also eliminating potential threats in the future. Bush then goes on to use an allusion to describe the heroic actions taken by flight attendants to stop an Al Qaeda member from blowing up a plane. By doing this, Bush can express a change in how the country handles terrorists. Unlike on September 11th, Americans were able to successfully stop terrorists from wreaking havoc in our skies. Bush also uses juxtaposition of what America has done to what America must still do. Bush says that America has “put [the] terror training camps [in] Afghanistan. out of business.” But Bush then goes on to reference the slew of terrorist organizations that still exist, “Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad.”. By making this comparison,