Free Essays on Terrorism: The Language of Terrorism :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

The Language of Terrorism On September 11, 2001, two airplanes flew into the earthly concern Trade pump and another into the Pentagon, while yet another suspiciously crashed. Blasted on T.V. screens across America, were images of fire, destruction, chaos and death. Framed in colors of red, white and blue, were such headlines that watch America Under-Attack, The War Against Terror and The Attack on America all the while, urgent ticket taped messages flowed across our television screens and news anchors reported on the utmost of news. To sum-up the days events, chairman Bush addressed the nation. It was in the Presidents initial speech to the nation following the attack on the World Trade Center that the adjective devilish was first introduced. Quoting from the bible, and making reference to a power greater than any of us, the President reassured the American pile of their safety and well-being. Within a couple of minutes, the stage was set for all that was to follow. Sin ce adopted by the media, the Bush administration and the American people, the religious reference of evil by the President has become an integral part of the public discourse. Framing the way we talk and think about the days events, and all concomitant events, including talk of Bin Laden, the Taliban and terrorism, the use of binary language in religious and metaphoric expression have become an important element in the struggle against terrorism. And despite the Presidents and congress denouncement of any reference to the attack on terrorism as a holy war, it seems as if the American ideal of separation of state and religion, has become suspended and/or forgotten all together. The intent of this paper is to analysis the language used by the President to describe the September 11th events, and consequentially, its binary effects. Given the Presidents religious and metaphoric references a dichotomous framework is thought to exit. For instance, in employ the term evil, images of t he devil and hell have been conjured up --and conversely-- images of God and heaven. Helping to demonize those responsible, the initial language used by the President and later corporal by the press, has since served as a political weapon from which to fight the war against terrorism. In that the Presidents speech evoked from his audience (most notably the American people) feelings of fear, terror, anger, and hatred, the appeal has been to the publics emotions and senses rather than their ration and intellect.