To begin with, Saddam Hussein and President George H.W Bush are both world leaders with different political agendas for their country. However, when it comes to catering to their own people, similar styles of public speaking can be seen throughout their speeches.
On April 13, 1991, at the Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, President George Herbert Walker Bush delivered a passionate speech reminding the citizens of the United States his vision for the country’s role play in the world in the future. In his remarks, President Bush commemorate the lives lost in the Persian Gulf War while praised the successful performance of the U.S. Air Force and mentioned that the New World Order was now “within our reach”.
When analyzing Bush’s speech, President Bush manages the usage of the strategies: rhetorical, innovation, storytelling, and redundancy to engage and maintain the audience’s interest. Along with evoking the people’s strong will to bring up the United States of America.
At the beginning of their speeches, both speakers acknowledge their audience and set a tone of appraisal to the forces that they represent for. Bush states that all soldiers are the same and that he was also no more special than any other soldier. He also sympathizes the families of each fallen soldier and thanked them for their honorary and bravery for the country.
He then continues to promote that he’s a patriot that he wouldn’t have had the courage to stand in front of the whole world to give out a national message without the courageous efforts of those around him. Not to mention, he also gave shoutouts to people he sees in the crowd, especially the generals and captains, allowing his message to seem much more personal and emotional. As he continues his speech, he constantly mentions the soldiers’ accomplishment and what they have done is history that will be passed down to generations.
On the other hand, Saddam Hussein uses a slightly different approach to speak to his people. While Hussein can’t relate to being a soldier in his past time, he relates to his people by a religious standpoint. He begins by praising God for allowing him the opportunity to lead his people and to work with such hardworking and passionate individuals. He also mentioned that without such devoted Muslims around him, “whatever faith in God has found its way to your hearts, and wherever it found what embodies it in the sincerity of your intentions and deeds”, the country would have failed. While Bush personally thanks his captains in broad daylight, Hussein doesn’t. Hussein thanks his people in much broader terms by calling all of the good Muslims of the world, and anyone who is a good person is in good humanity.
Above all, Bush’s uses rational thinking methods to reach out to the crowd by persuading his audience through sharing General Boyd’s experience as an unlimited liability of the military profession. He describes General Boyd’s experience as a brave soldier and a determined captive in Vietnam to show the hardships of an American soldier dedicating his life to his nation.
Bush uses a solemn tone to set the overall mood of his speech. His method of speaking in a very serious tone with deep sincerity allows the audience to empathize his feelings towards the loss of soldiers that fought for the nation which spared the lives of innocent civilians. More importantly, this also allows the audience to acknowledge that the President of their country cares for his people.
Moreover, at the beginnings of Hussein’s speech, you can sense a tone of antagonistic coming from his words. He speaks in defense of invading Kuwait City and charging “economic warfare” against the city and demanding for billions of dollars for compensation. Like many other Arab states, Iraq’s main source of income came from oil exports from Kuwait City.
However, when the economy crashed, Iraq could not meet its financial obligations during the time being. In any case, Kuwait began overproducing oil and lowering prices across the Middle East. As a leader for his country, Hussein was displeased of this unproudly act and said it was unacceptable for a country. It could be seen as Hussein is disowning Kuwait City for what they have done was a disappointment and decided to take over the city and putting it under his wing.
While Hussein was occupied with his preparations for an invasion of the Kuwait City, the United States were on their feet of putting a stop to this war during a victorious moment of European communist tumbling down in history. As a matter of fact, Hussien makes a reference of the United States military by accusing the nation that “they have persisted further in killing civilians and destroying property with their long-range aircraft and missiles…” and that leads the Iraqis uncertain trust of protection from the United States.
Furthermore, Hussein uses a religious standpoint in his speech to grab the audience’s attention. He persuades his crowd of listeners with appraising God as the answer to all their prayers or the solution to living proudly and to provide his people with a good living. In addition, the tones he uses throughout his speech convinces his audience to hate the U.S. President George H.W. Bush, whereas the U.S. subsequently liberated Kuwait City from war and supported Kuwait’s sovereignty.
In a like manner, both leaders demonstrated the usage of a religious standpoint to enclose their speech. In Bush and Hussein’s perspective on the issue, morality and religious values were shown in their speeches. Bush applies religion as a structure of faith for his people and nation, while Hussein depends on moral and religion as a solution for his people to follow in order to regulate society. Nevertheless, religion plays a significantly big role in communicating with their audiences because their faith was a deciding factor in the hands of God.
Consequently, a great leader speaks as a representation to their organizations. More specifically, a great speaker influences their audience in the way they feel and think, and motivate or inspire them. Essentially, a well-crafted speech to winning the hearts of the audience is to embrace their opinions and convey their thoughts into something you believe is the answer or right thing to do. Overall, I’d say that both leaders delivered effective speeches.
I believe Bush’s speech was the most effective because it was delivered directly to his audience personally with emotions attached, whereas Hussein’s speech was broadcasted over the radio, which he spoke indirectly to his audience with the claim of religion. Thus, rhetorical strategies of pathos and logos were used throughout their speech to get a hold of the audience’s attention.
