A civic artifact I am considering analyzing related to President Bush’s 9/11 speech is President Barack Obama’s televised address to the American Public after the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. This speech is seamlessly related to my last civic artifact as George Bush stated: “I have directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice”.  Thanks to the counterterrorism work of President Obama, the CIA, and those brave members of Seal Team Six who traveled to Pakistan, the leader of Al-Queada was killed.  Late on the night of May 11th, 2011, nearly ten years after the day, President Obama came onto every TV set in America for a surprise address.  To the relief of all Americans and especially those directly affected by the terrorist attack, the President reported: “the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden”.

The assassination of Bin Laden is very intriguing because it created a tremendous wave of patriotism and was referred to by many as one of the biggest accomplishments of Obama’s presidency.  Many people did not realize the assassination of Bin Laden served a more symbolic purpose then it did in actually ending terrorism in the United States.  Al-Qaeda was still at large in Afghanistan and they were likely to retaliate against America for the death of their leader.  This poses two questions: Why was this speech received so well by the people in the United States, and how did President Obama’s speech make people feel as if with the death of Bin Laden came the end of terrorism and the start of a hopeful beginning?  It is with the effective use of rhetoric, President Obama is able to use the assassination of Osama bin Laden to console people whos loved ones were killed in 9/11, and create a new sense of hope throughout the nation.

The most impactful rhetorical devices used in this speech appear to be kairos, pathos, and logos.  The use of kairos is clear in that President Obama uses the successful assassination of the man responsible for 9/11 to give his speech more merit.  With a wave of national pride and strong emotions that followed the news of Bin Laden’s death, there was a perfect window of opportunity to make a lasting impact on the American people through a passionate speech.  There is a clear use of pathos in this speech as well which can be seen in lines like “the images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory” and “nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts”.  These are just a few examples of the chilling emotional language used by President Obama in his speech.  Lastly, the President uses logos in his speech, especially when detailing the steps taken by the CIA, military, and himself in organizing this assassination.  He describes the hard work done by all involved and their efforts in fighting other sources of terrorism. These factual statements apply to peoples logic, giving them undeniable proof that they should not fear terrorism the way they have in the past.  With the combination of these three rhetorical approaches, President Obama is able to make a convincing argument that the age of terrorism is coming to an end.