Rhetorical Analysis Of Tamim Ansary's Essay

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“An Afghan American Speaks” was written by Tamim Ansary an Afghan-American; an author, public speaker, and a columnist for the encyclopedia website “Encarta.” This article was written three days after the terrorist attack in New York. Ansary was hearing a lot of talk about “bombing the Middle East back to the stone age,” some of which from Ronn Owens, who does a talk show on San Francisco's KGO Talk Radio. This comment from Owens troubled Ansary and was the catalyst of writing this article. The article starting off with the phrase “bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age” shows that Ansary, being an Afghan himself, was trying to inform people that this was not the people of Afghanistan it was the terrorist group within the country, lead …show more content…

He uses logos to back up his statements with facts, statistics and reasoning. It is said that “[T]he Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997” (Ansary 1). This is one of the very few statistics in the article, but it shows that the country was taken over well before the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York took place. Ansary goes on to say that if Americans wanted to start war with the Afghans they would have to march through Pakistan, who would not let the Americans’ army simply make their way through to Afghanistan, which could then potentially lead to other Muslim nations joining and possibly resulting in another world war. This idea was exactly what Bin Laden wanted; “That is his program. That’s exactly what he wants. That is why he did all of this” (Ansary 2). This is proven in his statements and the speeches that he has given. Ansary is saying that by giving in and declaring war, it is giving into Bin Laden and doing what he wants us to …show more content…

Ethos is ethical appeal and involves trying to convince an audience to have a certain opinion. The first example of ethos is found in this article states: “I am from Afghanistan, and even though I have lived in the United States 35 year...” (Ansary 1). In this example, Ansary is telling his audience that he is not just a Afghanistan who does not want his country bombed, but a citizen of America and has been living in this country for over half of his life. From this statement, it is denoted that Ansary can be trusted. He wants people to respect him and listen to what he has to say instead of instantly making objections. He speaks out and says that he is totally against the Taliban and Bin Laden and has no doubt in his mind that they were the ones that lead the

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