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Bush's 9/11 speech
President George W Bush's speeches after 9/11
Bush's 9/11 speech
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“The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.”
The words of President George W. Bush on 9/20/01
1990, President George H.W. Bush went to the Persian Gulf region with his wife and top congressional leaders at Thanksgiving time to visit the 400,000 troops gathered in Saudi Arabia, whom he sent there to protect that country from an Iraqi invasion. When the President arrived, he was greeted by Saudi officials with nothing less then open arms. This was period in US-Saudi relations that saw little if any disagreements and appeared to be a continuing foundation for pleasant ties in the future. However, this President could not for see the hardships between the two countries that would emerge during his sons Presidency.
The quote given by George W. Bush on the top of this page laid down a strong game plan concerning the war on terrorism and where it is heading in the next few years. The result of declaring war on terrorism has seen much success over the past year and a half. However, in this war we have failed to apply two very crucial tactics in fighting terror; stopping the money sources and de-legitimizing terrorism. If we fail to apply these tactics, long lasting progress in the war against terror is doubtful if we continue to play the appeasement game with Saudi Arabia because this country has and will continue to remain the largest offender of both points. Saudi Arabia is a country that is run by a corrupt dictatorship which allows an extreme view of Islam called Wahhabism to thrive in the country as well as supplying funds for the spread of it throughout the rest of the world. We have cal...
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...f money than a future relationship might be worth the oil. But if they do not, it just seems that we are being played in this relationship and the stakes are simply to high. The House of Saud should carefully examine this relationship and begin to make changes or else our protection and technology should not be given.
2003, the ongoing failure of the Royal Family to crack down on their money transactions has continued. While they have uncovered some transactions, millions still roam freely from bank account to bank account. While they have shut down certain charities post 9/11, they have re-opened more. This process of betrayal can only result in one outcome, and that outcome is American lives. Until we call upon are so called Arab Allies to liberalize their country, we are merely giving terror a green light to help themselves to the deep pockets of Saudi Arabia.
will gain a new safe haven; they will use Iraq’s resources to fuel their extremist movement” while the second backing is that the terrorists hate “us”. To come up with these backings, he assumes that terrorists will use nuclear weapons to attack us as soon as they can obtain nuclear weapons.
Throughout the speech, the Former President George W Bush strives to empower Americans by instructing them to remain resolute, but to “go back to [their] lives and routines”. He uses the personal pronoun we and the common pronoun us repeatedly to indicate that the people of the United States, who either saw the event on television or experienced this event firsthand, were and still are involved in this national tragedy. He implements this emotional appeal into his speech to involve all Americans--people living in the United States of America, regardless of their ethnicity, race, or culture, and to acknowledge that the American people have endured this together, and that they will continue to advance after this event with stronger resolve, stronger than ever. In addition, he implements personification to motivate and empower the American people. “Our nation, this generation, will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future” (Bush, 2001). “This generation”, again a synonym for the American people, with its unwavering resolve, will fight for its freedom persistently. He intimates that the future of America and of democratic freedom is in the hands of the American people: that the American people have the power to control their fate. The next sentence leads into America’s “philanthropically” democratic nature: “We will rally the world to this cause, by our efforts and by our courage” (Bush, 2001). This statement has been followed up by action only a few years later, when the United States intervened in the Iraqi War, Libyan Revolution, and even more civil wars to ensure the freedom of citizens from dictatorships, which in Islāmic nations, were militant groups, like the Hamas and Taliban. Lastly, the president utilized anaphora, specifically a tripartite structure, by affirming that the American people “will not tire”, “will not falter”, and “will not fail”. He implies that the American people will relentlessly fight for the worldwide establishment of peace and democratic institutions, a promise which America has kept even in the face of its own national crisis.
“America is a Nation with a mission - and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace - a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman”- (George W. Bush, 2004)
Host: On September the 11th 2001, the notorious terror organisation known as Al-Qaeda struck at the very heart of the United States. The death count was approximately 3,000; a nation was left in panic. To this day, counterterrorism experts and historians alike regard the event surrounding 9/11 as a turning point in US foreign relations. Outraged and fearful of radical terrorism from the middle-east, President Bush declared that in 2001 that it was a matter of freedoms; that “our very freedom has come under attack”. In his eyes, America was simply targeted because of its democratic and western values (CNN News, 2001). In the 14 years following this pivotal declaration, an aggressive, pre-emptive approach to terrorism replaced the traditional
"America's present need is not heroics but healing, not nostrums but normalcy, not revolution but restoration .not submergence in internationality but sustainment in triumphant nationality."
The speech appeals to the emotions of the entire nation when it addresses the topic of the war in Afghanistan and the threat of terrorism. Bush states, “ the best way to defend the homeland is to hunt the killers down one at a time, and...
When a giant explosion ripped through Alfred P. Murrah federal building April 19,1995, killing 168 and wounding hundreds, the United States of America jumped to a conclusion we would all learn to regret. The initial response to the devastation was all focused of middle-eastern terrorists. “The West is under attack,”(Posner 89), reported the USA Today. Every news and television station had the latest expert on the middle east telling the nation that we were victims of jihad, holy war. It only took a few quick days to realize that we were wrong and the problem, the terrorist, was strictly domestic. But it was too late. The damage had been done. Because America jumped to conclusions then, America was later blind to see the impending attack of 9/11. The responsibility, however, is not to be placed on the America people. The public couldn’t stand to hear any talk of terrorism, so in turn the White House irresponsibly took a similar attitude. They concentrated on high public opinion and issues that were relevant to Americans everyday. The government didn’t want to deal with another public blunder like the one in Oklahoma City. A former FBI analyst recalls, “when I went to headquarters (Washington, D.C.) later that year no one was interested in hearing anything about Arab money connections unless it had something to do with funding domestic groups. We stumbled so badly on pinpointing the Middle East right off the bat on the Murrah bombing. No one wanted to get caught like that again,”(Posner 90). The result saw changes in the counter terrorism efforts; under funding, under manning, poor cooperation between agencies, half-hearted and incompetent agency official appointees and the list goes on. All of these decisions, made at the hands of the faint-hearted, opened the doors wide open, and practically begged for a terrorist attack. So who’s fault is it? The public’s for being
Relations between the U.S. and the Middle East are strained at best. The troops deployed in the area face constant threat of attack by a militant group. These broken relations between the U.S. and the Middle East started over 50 years ago, with the Iran Hostage Crisis. The root causes of the crisis were many. One was U.S. greed over oil in Iran.
Fitzgerald continues to explain how the relationship between Kuwait was finally stained when Iraq found out they were drilling their oil. Tensions between the two b...
“What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security didn’t depend upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter an enemy attack?”
Although the United Sates and Saudi Arabia present the United States and Saudi Arabia’s relationship as excellent, there are actually two nations who have bitter disagreements but who allies through oil. The only thing that has held this alliance together is the US dependence on Saudi oil. The United States has felt and still fells that it is a necessity to have bases present in the Middle East to protect oil, and silently to protect Israel. The relationship began in 1933 when Standard Oil of California signed an agreement with the Saudi government. In 1943 FDR affirmed that the defense of Saudi Arabia was a vital interest to the United States and moved troops into the region. Future presidents would emulate this declaration and mobilization of troops to Saudi Arabia. Again in 1945 Abd al Aziz, the Saudi king, and FDR would cement this alliance, on a US warship in the Suez Canal. Soon after, airfields were constructed at Dhahran and other spots over Saudi Arabia; beginning a long tradition of US military facilities in Saudi Arabia. Abd al Aziz was the first of his line of successors to meet with US presidents. The relationship was only strengthened with the onset on the Cold war, as the US used the bases in Saudi Arabia as potential air force launch sites to the USSR and constructed more military facilities. In 1941 Harry S. Truman made another assertion of Americas protection and alliance with Saudi Arabia to Abd Al Aziz. Truman stated that “support for Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity and political independence was a primary objective of the United States.” (Countrystudies.com) Another stipulation of this pact was that the US established a permanent military training mission in the Saudi Arabia. That mission lasted until 1992. Soon after the pact between Truman and Aziz was agreed upon the US-Saudi relationship would endure its first major disagreement. On May 14th, 1948 Israel was declared an independent state in the former Arab dominated Palestine. Israel’s independence was backed the United States. Saudi Arabia refused to acknowledge the country of Israel and to engage in any relations with them. The Saudis concerns of the Israel-US relationship were reinforced in the 1970’s and 1980’s when the US sold arms to Israel, but refused to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. In some cases congressional leaders refused to sell arms to Saudi Arabia on the grounds that Saudi Arabia might use them against Israel.
Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terror (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005), 5.
...Arabia is a petrostate. Oil dominates the national economy, international exports, and the nation’s politics. It has greatly shaped what the kingdom is today. Having started out as somewhat of a tourist economy, the kingdom has become a world, monetary power. From their massive amounts of oil and extremely cheap production, the country has been able to gain large amounts of affluence and political power. With its large abundance of oil, the country has been able to profit immensely on sales and spur diplomatic outcomes to their benefit due to the great need of the resource. Without the discovery oil, Saudi Arabia would be of little importance in the modern world, having the Grand Mosque be the extent of its importance. But because of its discovery of oil, Saudi Arabia became of international importance, coming to be one of the greatest assets to world superpowers.
The discovery of oil in Middle East in the late nineteenth century added a critical dimension to the region as major outside state powers employed military force to protect their newly acquired interests in the Middle East. The United States efforts to secure the flow of oil have led to their ever-increasing involvement in the Middle East’s political affairs and ongoing power struggles. By the end of the twentieth century, safeguarding the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf had become one of the most important functions of the U.S. military. The close relationship between the United States and the Saudi royal family was formed in the final months of World War II, when U.S. leaders sought to ensure preferential access to Saudi’s petroleum. The U.S. link with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region has demonstrated to be greatly beneficial to both parties, yet it has also led to ever deepening U.S. involvement in regional politics.
However, you need to understand the situation in Saudi Arabia first. The way people drive in Saudi Arabia is insane. I mean, imagine that all cars are not following the traffic laws. You can go as fast as the car goes and you wouldn't be stopped at all. Leading to the deaths of nineteen people every day on the country’s roads.