Rhetorical Analysis Of George W Bush 9/11 Speech

In the beginning of 2005, President George W. Bush was in his second term. There were many crisis occurring during this time, such as terrorist attacks, and the war on Afghanistan and Iraq. These events influenced the speech he gave on January 20th 2005. He spoke of the oncoming war on terror and how democracy and freedom could help solve this imminent war. He believed that the United States of America could stop the war on terror by spreading democracy and the success of the U.S. to countries in need; in order to achieve this goal, the U.S. citizens must support each other. Bush used the rhetorical strategies of allusion, patriotic appeal, and an aggressive yet hopeful tone to support his message of uniting America in helping spread democracy

In his third paragraph, Bush alludes to 9/11 as the “day of fire” that came after many years of peace. He uses this allusion to appeal to emotion because it makes the audience think of how the United States was attacked by terrorism on its own ground. This helps his argument because it shows how much of a threat terrorism is to the U.S. and explains why the nation must come together to fight the common enemy: terrorism. It also explains why America needs to spread democracy and freedom to countries affected by terrorism. George W. Bush also alludes to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as the “durable wisdom” and “permanent hope” that makes the United States unique to persuade patriotic citizens to remember the values that America was built on. This helps further his message that the U.S. needs to spread the morals of the U.S. to other countries fighting terrorism by emphasizing how great american values are and that it is necessary to spread those values to struggling countries. The allusions used in Bush’s speech lead to the remembrance of how the country’s values of freedom came to be or how they were attacked, forcing the remembrance of how important freedom is to the U.S. This shows the audience, U.S. citizens, that if freedom is so important to them, and the country, they should be willing to spread the goodness of freedom and democracy to