analysis of Bush speech "Update in the War on Terror"

I’m going to analyze the speech president Bush made on 7^th September 2003 to update the public on the war on terror.

The specific aim of this speech is to convince Americans and the rest of the world that the American government is fighting for a just cause.

The speech is divided into two main parts. Firstly, the president talks about what is being done to combat terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. Secondly, he focuses on their Iraqi mission and explains the American government objectives of the same.

With careful reading it is obvious that during the whole speech the Middle Eastern World is stereotyped in a negative way. Whereas the western world, in particular the USA, is represented in a positive way.

All of the adjectives and nouns referring to the Arab world are negative, e.g. terror, oppressed, violence, bombs, suffering, resentments, torture, etc. On the other hand, all the nouns and adjectives referred to the American nation are of a more positive nature, e.g. human, progress, tolerance, peace, democracy, etc.

In the same way, the verbs concerning the Middle eastern fighters are negative, e.g. ambushed, killed, bombed, murdered etc ; instead positive verbs are used to describe American actions, e.g. make, promote, support, helping, prevent, represent etc.

The fact that the Western countries are defined as “the civilized world” implies that the rest of the world isn’t so.

These are all deliberate linguistic choices made to portray the Iraqi government and the fighters as evil, the American army as the saviours and the population as tyranny victims who see the foreign forces as liberators and not conquerors.

Silvia Bettiol