16, Tomahawk cruise missile and fighter-bombers from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait attacked Iraq. At 9:00p.m. President George Bush addressed the nation and the world from the Oval Office, informing all that war to liberate Kuwait had begun. (John Lucaites and Lawrence Bernado: Great Speakers and Speeches) His speech entitled "War Message" wasn't unique, however. It fit neatly into the rhetorical category (or genre) that Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson call Presidential War Rhetoric. Jamieson and Campbell give five rhetorical strategies for war in their book called Deeds Done in Words. The purpose of this essay will be to evaluate these five strategies and determine if President Bush's rhetoric meets their criteria. First however we have to determine what rhetoric is.
             Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric, Second Edition tells us that rhetoric is an action human beings perform, and perspective humans take. It uses symbols as a purpose of communication, and involves focusing on symbolic processes. Concerning war rhetoric, Political Scientist Edward Keynes says "Future presidents should recall one of the Vietnam War's most important lessons-the nation should not wage a long, protracted, undeclared war without fundamental prior agreement between congress and the president, and broad, sustained public support for the government's decision to send the nations sons and daughters of
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