A rhetoric of appeasement: Tropology in the politico-economic War on Terror.

摘要

In the War on Terror that was initiated by the Bush administration after 11 September 2001 and continues in the policies, if not the rhetoric, of the Obama presidency, there have been rhetorics that act to appease publics thereby persuading people into accepting the war. The war is justified through a "color-blind" racism in which all Muslims become terrorists, potential terrorist, or helpless people in need of saving. This form of color-blind racism can be seen in political scientist Samuel P. Huntington's "clash of civilizations" trope, in which the warfare is blamed on Muslims' culture (as if there were but one). This paper looks at the clash of civilizations theory as an overarching, dominant trope existing in the discourse of the politico-economic War on Terror. The trope reveals a colony-blind imperialism, that is, an imperialism in which contemporary colonialism is denied yet practiced. Such tropes provide a story that hides the politico-economic incentives behind U.S. foreign policy, thereby allowing the continuation of warfare in the Middle East. If the field of rhetoric is to follow its tradition of working towards civic participation, or social activism, then it must continue in its development of incorporating the study of the macro, the powerful, and the economic, as these are interlocked with the smaller communities in which we interact.