Remarks on the War on Terror

635: Speech Review 02: Remarks on the War on Terror (March 19, 2008) George W. Bush
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The art of persuasion in political speeches is important to influence, change or reinforce ideas, as the speaker tailors the message depending on the audience. The audience has certain attitudes, behaviors, beliefs and values, and the speaker either changes or reinforces them. President Bush considers the audience who are largely drawn from the security forces as well as foreign policy makers, acknowledging their support and efforts in making the world a better place. Bush mentions, “Along the way, our troops added new chapters to the story of American military heroism.” This speech review identifies pathos, logos and ethos as three elements of persuasion in the speech ‘Remarks on the War on Terror’, it also highlight on language use, alliteration and repetition as effective strategies to persuade the audience.
Persuasive speeches tend to have three elements the ethos, pathos and logos. The ethos is related to one’s character, pathos relates to emotional appeals and feelings while logos appeals to logical reasoning. Bush uses ethos to urge support for the War on Terror, “My administration understood that America could not retreat in the face of terror. And we knew that if we did not act, the violence that had been consuming Iraq would worsen” Bush is an effective speaker as he also uses ethos to make a connection on the path towards the War on Terror, “The men and women who crossed into Iraq five years ago removed a tyrant, liberated a country, and rescued millions from unspeakable horrors.” Since, Bush was the President when there was a U.S led invasion of Iraq, the audience already knows that he is committed to making the U.S safer, and hence his credibility with the audience.
In the case of emotional appeal, Bush acknowledges that the war will have long-lasting impact and will eventually prove fruitful, “The liberation of Iraq took incredible skill and amazing courage, and the speed, precision and brilliant execution of the campaign will be studied by military historians for years to come.” To further appeal to the audience using pathos, Bush provides a vision with positive results after there is further surge in the number of troops, “The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around. It has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror.” Additionally, this strategy is an extension of Monroe’s motivated sequence framework, where speakers get attention, establish a need, satisfy the need and visualize the future.
Bush also uses logical reasoning to appeal to the audience that the war is necessary, “Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely that we'll face the enemy here at home.” “They used women and children as human shields. They stopped at nothing in their efforts to prevent us from prevailing. But they couldn't stop the coalition advance.” President Bush also makes claims based on the advice of the military bosses to appeal to logical reason. “General Petraeus just warned that too fast a drawdown could result in such an unr...