Binary Discourse in U.S. Presidential Speeches from FDR to Bush II (original) (raw)

2013, IOSR Journal of Applied Physics

You know, you've heard me talk about this probably, but I really, truly view this as a conflict between Good and Evil. And there really isn't much middle ground. The people we fight are evil people. 4 Actually, Bush's World View is a paragon of Manichaeism. George II's belief that America had embarked upon a binary struggle of Good vs. Evil was the predominant theme of his presidency. The president and his administration invoked this starkly dualistic theme repeatedly to defend and justify a whole host of controversial actions. On September 20, 2001, the president addressed a joint session of congress and made clear that not only was the conflict America faced one between pure good and pure evil, but further, everyone was compelled to choose one side or the other:-every nation, in every region, has now a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.‖ 5 President Bush underscored the binary nature of the challenge facing America again in his January 29, 2002 State of the Union speech. He announced that US foreign policy would be devoted primarily to combating the threats posed by an-axis of evil‖ threatening the world: States like these [North Korea, Iran, and Iraq], and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic… 6 The president's speech made it emphatically clear that America's enemies were not merely hostile to the US and threatening its interests but rather were pure evil. They did not operate in isolation but as an-axis‖, the historically familiar term designating Hitler's Germany and its allies. America's enemies were intent on America's total destruction and they were all part of one unified mass. Above all, the US was to be governed by an absolute truth:-we've come to know truths that we will never question: evil is real, and it must be opposed.‖ 7 And in a speech announcing his controversial Pre-emptive Strikes Doctrine, President Bush defended his Manichean world view as such: Some worry that it is somehow undiplomatic or impolite to speak the language of right and wrong. I disagree. […] We are in a conflict between good and evil, and America will call evil by its name. By confronting evil and lawless regimes, we do not create a problem, we reveal a problem. And we will lead the world in opposing it. 8