Genre

War Rhetoric: Deliberative vs. Epideictic

Coined by Aristotle, war rhetoric was used as the persuasive methods 
by which leaders who want to go to war convince both other leaders 
and the nation's citizens of a conflict's necessity. These can 
include presenting a country as an imminent threat to the nation, 
accusing those opposed to war as working against the nation's 
interests, and frequently repeating the necessity of war.

Deliberative Rhetoric:

(sometimes, called political rhetoric, deliberative discourse, or  legislative oratory) is a rhetorical genre used to convince an audience to complete or not complete an action.

Epideictic Rhetoric:

(called ceremonial oratory) aims to condemn or to eulogize an individual, cause, occasion, movement, city, or state. The word is from the Greek epideiktikós, meaning “for display” or “declamatory,” and is a derivative of epideiknýnai, meaning “to show off” or “to display.”

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Why would President Bush use Epideictic  over Deliberative ?

• defined the problem we faced not as one of policy, but rather as one of unity
• amplifies the nations virtues
• allowed the President the ability of“reality creation”:

Naming a situation provides the basis for understanding it and determining the appropriate response. Because of his prominent political position and his access to the means of communication, the president, by defining a situation, might be able to shape the context in which events or proposals are viewed by the public.

(J. Maggio, The Presidential Rhetoric of Terror: The (Re)Creation of Reality Immediately after 9/11)

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How does the President use this genre towards the support of the “War on Terror”?

Critics suggested that the Administration’s goal in the aftermath of 9/11 was to instill a feeling of fear among Americans in order to justify its policies that included military retaliation, increased costly security as well as excessive spending and borrowing. The fear, which was being constantly inserted through political discourse as a reminder or the reality that the terrorist threat would not go away overnight, was therefore pushing the nation to stand united behind the President call for “War on Terror.” Essential, President Bush used epideictic over deliberative rhetoric because he did not need to convince American’s of the horror of 9/11 but rather feed the fear, or continue to display the “terror,” so that “war on terror” was the only viable option.