Post 911 Speech Analysis

Bush, in his speech post 911, explicitly expressed the idea “you are either with us or against us” (3). He clearly determined to start the war on terror as a direct confrontation between two entities known as “us and them”, which has last for more than decades. This definition of two entities as shown could mean multiple confrontations including theocracy vs. secularism, and modern vs. pre-modern mentioned above. In fact, though these confrontations are still in place, they are in fact no longer solid because of the trend of globalization. While physical borders still hold and play an important role in international relations, realistically speaking, the ongoing trend of globalization obfuscates the old borders in all aspects including demographic borders, religious borders. The unclear border of the population results in difficulties in defining ourselves. A
He asks us to reconsider the “principal of universality” (Chomsky 187) by which he argued “the importance to apply to ourselves the same standards we apply to others” (Chomsky 187). Within the growing trend of globalization, the clear boundaries of the civilizations, in fact, blur and the direct confrontation is neither necessary nor justified but misguided. The United States as well as the international terrorism should rethink their roles in the new norm of the clash of civilizations. In this globalized world, we need try to apply the universality in this norm while holding its exceptional ideologies. The conceptual bias rooted in Western ideology as well as the radical doctrine adopted by international terrorism should both end. More explicitly, both sides should apply this principle by regarding ourselves in an equal and mutual interdependent way. To accomplish this, we need to see ourselves in a huge mixed civilization in which each country and religion is closely related and