The West And The Rest Speech Analysis

On September 11, 2001 two commercial airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and another plane crashed into the Pentagon. This day remains as one of the only times the United States were attacked on American soil. Along with the damage to the buildings and city the aftermath of this attack has long surpassed the event. Families devastated because someone they loved and cared about were trapped in the rubble and never found or they got word that their loved one had been a victim of the attack. Using Stuart Hall’s definition of the “Regime of Truth” in “The West and the Rest”, President Bush used his power and the media to assert his dominance and ideas throughout the War on Terror. The War on Terrorism is a mixture of

In “The West and the Rest” Hall explains discourses are “a coherent or rational body of speech or writing” which can be in the form of a persuasive speech. Throughout the war the opposing countries both broadcasted what they thought to be the truth. This bias in the media illustrated their side in the light that they chose making their beliefs and ideologies apparent as the only one. Bush utilized multiple tactics like this during his speeches to the nation. Frequently Bush repeated the slogan “you’re either with us or you’re against us” making those individuals who did not believe in the war marginalized to being a terrorist. The United States took the war as though they were trying to “help” a foreign nation and free them from oppression. According to Seema Gahlaut and Gary K Bertsch “After 9/11, it seemed almost axiomatic that multilateralism would be the preferred U.S. approach to arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation. In the war on terror and, it was assumed, the United States would need to strengthen the transatlantic alliance”. This statement describes that the U.S. had no other incentive or desire to follow a different path when it came to their

However, what the media didn’t always illustrate was the number of anti war protests, and rallies. These individuals who thought the war would hurt the country were set aside in order to promote the ideas of the majority. In the conversation between Andre Vltchek and Noam Chomsky they discuss censorship in the media and how “you have two choices, to either repeat propaganda, repeat standard doctrine, or sound like a lunatic”. Throughout the conversation both men elaborate on how they personally have faced censorship and been told they are prohibited to say something just because it might not be directly read off of a teleprompter. Although, there is a different perspective that was not represented on the American news stations. On large broadcasting networks, they never showed the death and despair the other countries were facing. News stations focused on what would promote their ideas and glorify the war to the general population. For example, Bush portrayed “Saddam Hussein [as] a 'monster' and 'madman', who had turned Iraq into a 'house of horrors', a 'mansion of gloom'.” (Discourses of danger and the 'war on terror': gothic Kyrgyzstan and the collapse of the Akaev regime). American TV exerted their power and created a discourse that was portrayed enough times it was ultimately undeniable. According to Hall, this