Rhetorical History Lesson

Dear President Roosevelt,

I am writing to you from the year 2007.

                    A few years past, something happened, which caused Americans to no longer trust in our safety and security. This was not the unseen face of tyranny, but an all out act of terrorism and an assault on our American way of life. It was just as you said; this group was not stupid enough to land its troops in the United States, but attacked by using their secret agents and their dupes. Even though we are now one of the richest, most technologically advanced nations in the world, we were not able to stop this serious threat raised against our safety by this foreign peril.

          We had previously been diplomatic, economic-sanctioning talkers, but this hard-felt attack on our homeland prompted American citizens everywhere to demand and support a speedy and complete action in recognition of this obvious danger. Quite overnight, our nation’s sense of patriotic duty was sparked in to action and it seemed that our countrymen had now, renewed their faith and strengthened their devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.

          Sadly, the man responsible for these attacks has yet to be found and removed from the rural hills and mountains of his homeland by American forces. But this has not just been a manhunt. We have also tried to assist this man’s country, to help them get out from under his organization’s poisonous propaganda. However, their road to freedom is fragile at best, and uncertain considering the economic instability of heroine on the open market.

          It was not long before our attention was redirected and our faces were set against yet, another evildoer. However, this new foe did not inspire the all out unified patriotism as before. Our president told us that it was necessary, for the safety of our country and of our democracy to be involved in a crisis beyond our borders. But why, this was not the man who bombed our towers?

          It was almost as if you were speaking through our president as he told us that, no realistic American can expect from a dictator’s peace international generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion, or even good business. Though there had been no physical threat by this madman, our president reminded us that his troops, our oppositional forces, were disloyal to their unfair and cruel dictator who, had been acting as their instrument of oppression, and that it was our duty to protect and liberate our enemy’s citizens. By going to war, we could not only defend the peace, stability, and democratic freedoms of our opponent, but also ensure the peace, stability and democratic freedoms of the American people.

          Still we questioned our leader’s motives for war. If we are sending our troops across the ocean to stop oppression, torture, and the repression of basic civil liberties, then why had we not committed ourselves and given our pledge to those in Africa being eradicated by genocide, and who are being buried in quicklime ditches. What could be the reason? Are there no diamonds left? 

          But then our president renewed our fear and informed us that there was a possibility this dictator had amassed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. History is horror story: Over the last sixty years we had seen what the crash of a bomb could do, and we had lived with the scare of nuclear war throughout the 1980’s. As true Americans, we had no choice but to fear the worst if there was not a world wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical ogression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in”>Our country has rapidly changed into a much more diverse, more global community. You had the difficulty of distinguishing traitors by sight or name, but our enemies are much easier to spot. Not to mention our technological capabilities which allow us to monitor all forms of communication and correspondence so that we may root out the organizations and dictators who continually threaten our American way of life. Some people have; of course, railed against this saying it violates our rights. But like you said yourself Mr. President, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Like in your day, there were those, who were persistent, and who, continued to disrespectfully question our faithful president. They said we were fighting a war for the liberation of natural resources, and that American was only destroying our oppressor’s country so that we could rebuild it to serve our own national needs. They said that certain political leaders would get very rich, and that their pocketbooks had gone far ahead of their patriotism. Of course, people who said all that were quickly shamed by patriotic example, making it very unpopular to make trouble among the sovereign without feeling its weight.

Nothing more could be said after this. Along our country’s journey towards peace and a more civilized society we learned our soldiers must have the full support of the nation, and that decent causes a disregard of all things worth fighting for. To be against the decision of our president would be like shredding our flag atop the graves of heroes, and shaming the veterans who had given their lives so that we may live out the glory of our more than perfect constitution.  

I realize that in your day that it was radios, which brought your message into the homes of American people, but our current president now enters by means of televisions. He must deliver his speeches, not only in the presence of congress, but in full view of a tuned in American public, who vainly judge, not only the content of his discourse, but also his ability to perform. Like you, he must try very hard to obtusely inform, sufficiently convince and completely pacify the nation he cares so deeply about. Luckily, our country’s leader has access to brilliant and valiant speechwriters, who have thoroughly studied the work of their predecessors, and who have not abandoned the stylistic and endearing, political prose we Americans have come to expect from our President in times of crisis.

                                             With deepest sincerity,

                                                         A citizen