“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.
Since the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration has been calling every citizens and every nations to support his Middle East policy. Nonetheless, the U.S. has been involved in the middle-east struggle for more than half of the century, wars were waged and citizens were killed. Yet, political struggles and ideological conflicts are now worse than they were under Clinton’s presidency. As “President’s Address to the Nation” is a speech asking everybody to support the troops to keep fighting in Iraq, I, as an audience, am not persuaded at all because of his illogical fallacy in the arguments. In this essay, I will analyze how and what are the illogical fallacies he uses in the speech.
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.
Osama bin Laden refers to his reasons as facts. In his first fact he addresses the issue of the United States presence in Holy Middle Eastern places. He believes that the United States is there for the wealth and not only to harass Iraq, but other Muslim countries. Osama bin Laden must have forgotten that in Iraq invading Kuwait it was a breech of International Law and had that not happened the United States presence would not have r...
Events that capture the entire world’s attention are few and far between. Fighting wars normally occurs between acknowledged enemies. In the war against terrorism, most notably, the war against Al-Qaeda, the enemy is unknown. One is not the enemy of the United States of America by virtue of one’s ethnic heritage. A Muslim is not a hidden enemy simply because he is Muslim. A Muslim does however become the enemy when he targets the world as a member of Al-Qaeda, the vision of one man. He was an intelligent and educated man who came from wealth and high esteem, who, guided by his faith, through radicalization, exile from homeland, and anti-western sentiments, built the terrorist organization known as Al- Qaeda. His name was Osama bin Laden.
After the attacks by the predominantly Saudi extremists on 9-11, the administration of then President George ‘Dubya’ Bush went into overdrive to be seen as proactive in the effort to make sure that the attacks could not be repeated. With the passage of The USA Patriot Act, the then President Bush asserted, we would be handed our intelligence and law enforcement officers the required tools and abilities to fight this new and ‘present danger.’ The document lays out the assertions of the President as of October 26, 2001 as given during a speech at the White House. Also included are the contrasting comments and opinions of Suzanne Spaulding, who has served in the intelligence community for 25 years under both Republican and Democratic presidents and is currently Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security.
George W. Bush quoted in results to 9/11, “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve”. On September 11, 2001, there was a vicious terrorist attack on the United States of America. Al-Qaida a terrorist group from the Middle East, decided violate what America stands for: freedom, liberty, and the rights of men and women of all races, backgrounds, and beliefs. On the dreadful morning of September 11, 2001, they hijacked four US planes with knives and attacked the nation in a horrific way. Two planes hit the Twin Tower, collapsing both buildings in New York City World Trade Center. The third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The last plane was going to crash into another building in Washington, D.C., but the passengers stopped the hijackers, and the plane crashed into a field instead. Throughout this horrific ordeal former president George W. Bush remain calmed, trying to draft out a plan of whom to blame for the attack. The Bush administration has a lot of dark secrets and connection to the Saudi’s before and after September 11, 2001. The United States government was warned prior the attack directly from Osama Bin Laden, in which the warnings were ignored.
The continuing successful and attempted terrorist attacks in the USA and the endless wars and conflicts in which we are involved are a manifestation of political, economical and imperialistic failures in Arab lands. This was supported by Western society with the United States as the largest of powers. Instability, oppression, poverty and political alienation that the citizens of many Islamic-Arab nations experienced within the last hundred years have led to major hatred of the United States by the people of many Arab nations. These sources of hatred can be viewed as remote causes of the endless terror attacks and conflicts around the globe. Through the analysis of these causes, it is possible to find ways to avoid such incidents of terror by solving the problem at the source.
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.
In 1980 Kuwait, feared the dominance of Persian in the Gulf area had no option but to support Iraq financially and act as a life tube to the Iraqi military (3).Kuwait sent medical supplies to the wounded Iraqi soldiers and food during these eight years (3). At the end of the Persian-Iraq war, Iraq managed to keep its country and pride safe, but suffered greatly both financially and humanly (2). Iraq had a loaded debt and owed nearly $37 billion to the gulf countries in 1990, due the assistance they gave it to Iraq during the Persian-Iraq war (2). The ruler of Iraq Saddam Hussein asked the Gulf countries especially the UAE and Kuwait to abrogate the debt, believing the loans should be looked at as returning the favour for saving the Gulf region from the Iranian expansionism (2). The Iraqi ruler calls was futile as his demands was rejected by the Gulf leaders (2). This resolution led Saddam to threaten Kuwait (2).
Relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia are complicated to say the least. Saudi Arabia is a major exporter of oil and in order to “protect a stable and cheap supply of oil” coming to the U.S. and our allies, military bases have been set up. Although the U.S. is there to aid Saudi Arabia, “the presence of bases fosters opposition to the regime they are there to protect”—classic catch-22 (Okruhlik).
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...
?US Challenges and Choices Saudi Arabia: A View from the Inside,? The Atlantic Council of the United States, The Middle East Institute, The Middle East Policy Council, and The Stanley Foundation, <http://reports.stanleyfdn.org/EFCgulfh02.pdf> (May 31, 2004).
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a petrostate. It is a petrostate in the sense that the oil sector dominates the national economy and international exports. (Colgan 226) This is due to Saudi Arabia’s one crop economy, oil. (Ali 100) Oil accounts for 70-80% of the state revenue as well as roughly 95% of export revenues. Before the discovery of oil in the 1930s, the economy rested on Islamic pilgrims. Containing the Grand Mosque, Al-Masjid al-Haram, Saudi Arabia gets a large influx of believers every year for the Hajj, one of the Five Pillars of Islam. During this time of year, income was made by food and shelter sold to the travelers. This was enough to support the state, but not enough to make it the monetary power it is today. What allowed for Saudi Arabia’s climb in the world economic ladder was oil. Oil has been a valuable industrial resource since the beginning of World War 1. Since then the demand for oil has progressively become higher and higher amongst industrial nations, allowing for oil rich states to receive large amounts of affluence. Among these oil rich states is Saudi Arabia, the region with the highest capacity for oil production out of the entire Middle East. From their remarkably high oil production, Saudi Arabia was able to gain considerable amounts of wealth and political significance. Oil in Saudi Arabia politically affected the Saudi government in both their foreign and domestic policy by providing economic power, the ability to fund wars, the ability to use economic diplomacy.
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.
...s the Arabs’ nightmare. In 1973, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria decided to fight against Israel to revenge Arabs’ defeat which was in 1967. The plan was that Egypt and Syria would battle by the military while Saudi Arabia would use oil as a weapon. The result was Saudi Arabia stopped supplying oil to the USA. It took a while to settle the conflicts down. Eventually, the relationship was rehabilitated.