TOW #15- Nonfiction- Bush's Speech To Congress After 9/11

On September 11, 2011, two planes, hijacked by members of the Islam terrorist group al-Qaeda, flew into the Twin Towers in Manhattan, New York. A third plane was flown into the pentagon and a fourth crashed into an open field in Pennsylvania. Thousands were killed in these attacks and even more lives were shattered across the nation, leaving the country wondering what would happen next. Nine days later, President George W. Bush delivered a powerful speech on the moral resolve necessary to overcome the disaster and defeat the terrorist enemy. Throughout his speech, Bush used a medley of rhetorical devices to empower the American people to fight back against al-Qaeda and resist defeat. Bush is powerful in the way he offers the normal way emergencies are interpreted in America versus the way the attacks were actually accepted. Toward the beginning, he announces that the state of the Union is usually delivered by the president in his chamber to the people, however, he

turns this around by giving examples of how the people are actually the ones delivering the state of the union in their own actions. Bush states that it is through "the endurances of rescuers...the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, and the saying of prayers" that America had shown that the current state of the Union was nothing but "strong". In doing so, he empowers the nation, and helps them see that their strength, united, is greater than any damage done by the enemy. The president also successful in his use of demonizing diction. In reference to al-Qaeda, he uses words like "the enemy", "enemies of freedom", "murderers". This helps Americans identify the issue and the source of their distress, further unifying them against one, rotten, source. Bush is avid in insisting that the United States is far from defeated, and as far as fighting terrorists goes, far from stopping with al-Qaeda. He uses hyperboles and extreme logical fallacies in order to draw vivid lines in the sands to show that terrorists that the fight is far from over and their goals of weakening the US have completely failed. Bush even proclaims to the US citizens, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." He is forcing people to join the fight and choose a side in this battle, making it clear that the US is ready to come back stronger than ever,