Analysing Tony Blair’s Speech on the Topic of War with Iraq

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Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................4

Use of language......................................................................................................................4

Literary Techniques ...............................................................................................................5

Psychological Manipulation...................................................................................................5 student 1/26/11 11:22 AM

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Outline

I. Introduction

II. Use of Language

A. Choice of words

B. Emphasis

III. Literary Techniques

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Vienna Kim

Mrs. Kim

English Analysis

26th January 2011 student 1/26/11 11:22 AM

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Analysing Tony Blair’s Speech on the Topic of War with Iraq

From the very beginning, Tony Blair directly reveals his thesis-British forces should take part

in military action in war with Iraq. Then in the next paragraph, he clearly introduces the

theme of his speech-The mission for this war is to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and

disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. To support his thesis and theme, he uses

emotive language and various literary techniques. And these overall succeed to produce

effective psychological manipulation.

Emotive language, which Tony Blair uses, is all selective choices of words. Through several

stages, emotive language takes a significant role to make the audience feel in the same way as

the Prime Minister. Initially, Blair claims the mass development of weapons and Saddam

Hussein are “new threat” which cause “disorder” and “chaos”. The vocabulary such as

“threat”, “disorder” and “chaos” immediately set a dramatic tone in the minister's voice and

well-reflects the minister's view that Saddam Hussein is a “barbarous ruler”. Then, such

opinion is further strengthened by counter-argument. Again, despite the fact that counter-

argument is a sort of opinion, the minister has made the delicate selection of words in order

to make the argument, as it is a fact rather than opinion. For example, Blair says, “the truth is,

all nations are targets”. However, the statement that “all nations are targets, in fact, is not “the

truth.” It is an opinion. Similarly, the minister chooses to repeat the phrase, “hundred of

thousands”. It is to emphasise vast majority of Iraqi people, who suffer under the control of

Saddam Hussein. This repetition will trigger sympathy among the audience. Lastly, by

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stating that the weapons are “now being manufactured” to threat world peace, the audience is

eventually able to think that the problem is imminent and thus the action is needed to solve

the problem as fast as possible.

Regarding literary techniques, it is designed to reinforce the function of emotive language as

well as overall structure. Consider the Rule of Three. It is used throughout the whole speech, student 1/26/11 11:20 AM
Comment: What  is  the    
Rule  of  Three”?  
and often closely related to the theme. As an example of effective rule of three, Tony Blair
student 1/26/11 11:21 AM
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claims, weapons and Iraqi terrorists groups both hate “our way of life, our freedom, our

democracy.” Yet another example is that “poverty, the environment, and the ravages of

disease” requires a world of order and stability. Indeed, both rule of threes are closely

associated with the theme of removing Saddam Hussein, our enemy, from power for the sake

of “peace in Europe.” Therefore, this strengthens the overall idea of the speech. And at the

same time, these two different rules of threes shows the strong contrast to each other. This

further accentuates the image of poor “hundreds of thousands” Iraqi citizens, who have been

“driven from their homes or even murdered.” In this aspect, this supports emotive language

by helping to convey the sense of sympathy.

Lastly, emotive language and literary techniques all together create sophisticated

psychological manipulation. While emotive language majorly creates a sense of sympathy,

literary techniques aid to create other senses such as fear and patriotism. For instance, the

words such as “tyrannical states” and “catastrophe” bring us fear that the peace of Europe

will break soon. And simultaneously, Tony Blair argues with credible source, “60% of the

population is depended on food aid”. This instills sympathy. While the sense of sympathy

and fear juxtaposes on the audience's mind and bring the confusion, Blair insinuates another

theme on the audience's mind—Patriotism. With authoritative statement, the minister says on

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the “courage and determination” of British people, “ the fate of many nations rests” This is

loaded language that makes British people feel responsibility for this war or otherwise, feel

guilty. These three senses, indeed, elicits the definite need for the war.

References

Insert reference here. For example, I could be referencing a passage from a book, or a quote

from a website, or perhaps I am simply referring back to a news report I saw on the

telly.  

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