Read: Bush, George W.

, Iraq speech, March 17, 2003 (course pack, pp 88-90)

Moore, Michael. “Vacation Is Over” Sept. 2, 2005 (course pack, pp. 91

Pretend that you have picked these two documents to critique for assignment #
2.

1. First locate quotes from the Bush speech on going to war with Iraq that show fallacies,
verbal tricks, or propaganda techniques that you see. Find at least one, but two would
be better. Then briefly explain and analyze why that quote exhibits the linguistic
qualities that make it a fallacy, trick, etc. Use any or all of the four articles we’ve read so
far to make this determination.

2. Now locate quotes from the Moore letter about hurricane Katrina, passages that show
fallacies, verbal tricks, or propaganda techniques that you see. Find at least one, but two
would be better. Then briefly explain and analyze why that quote exhibits the linguistic
qualities that makes it a fallacy, trick, etc. Use any or all of the four articles we’ve read
so far to make this determination.

1103-021; HWJ #10 (Joshua Greene)

1. During the Bush speech the entire speech was centered to make Americans look good
that they will be going to war to help the Iraqis by eliminating the root cause of terror
on the world by removing Sudan Hussain from power and disarming massively
destructive weapons. During multiple parts of the speech he mentions that the
American people are peaceful and these Iraqis are not peaceful. He also mentions a
since of a straw man saying they will harm hundreds of thousands of people while not
having evidence of this. Lastly he is also using bandwagoning techniques and the use of
people with power to show that these majority of powerful people support the country
trying to “help” Iraq by attacking them.

2. In Moore’s letter he is trying to be deceptive by saying that Bush is doing just a fine job
of not doing multiple things. By doing this he is making Bush look like a fool because it
makes Bush seem like he doesn’t care or doesn’t have the time to help those in need.
Throughout the letter he really only asked for one request and that is to send the
military helicopters to help save those stranded from the tornado, but even with this
request he exaggerates on Bush’s lack of action by saying to compare this situation to
one that he is acting upon.

-Joshua Greene