Let Bolton Battle

Let Bolton Battle

What if you had just got off work early and decided to fly home to surprise your family, but just as you take off the screaming starts. Your plane was just hijacked by an extremist terrorist group that hates the United States and is going to take the plane down in a city for maximum casualties. Do you think something should be done to prevent this? It is horrible that after 9/11 no one could agree “on something as basic to the war on terror as a comprehensive definition of terrorism” while other innocent people died. The author, Newt Gingrich, recognizes these dangers and presents a strong argument for the election of John Bolton, Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, to become ambassador to the United Nations. With a tough tone, Newt Gingrich presents his unyielding position on an urgent cause.

I have chosen to analyze Newt Gingrich’s article because it is so influential and steadfast to his cause. The article is on a website at “www.newt.org” and is unrelenting throughout both pages. Gingrich does not vacillate from his objective in the article and remains sturdy in his stance on Bolton’s need for election. The way that Gingrich sets up his position generates a decision for the reader: Why not elect Bolton?

Newt Gingrich knows politics; he has served on Congress since 1978 till he was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995. During his four-year term, the Washington Times called him “the indispensable leader” and Time magazine named him “Man of the Year” for 1995. Not only was he influential on the floor, he has written nine books including two best sellers, Contract With America and To Renew America. Furthermore, he has become a sought-after public speaker, and just finished a keynote address at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard University. Through Gingrich’s website he responds to questions and concerns about pieces that he has written and states that he will even have an open debate about his articles. This is an ethos appeal for the reader since they know that Gingrich is well respected and knowledgeable.

First, Gingrich opens with the powerful statement that contains demanding diction, such as “right choice” and “without further delay” to propel his argument for confirming Bolton to the United Nations. Then he states the reason that Bolton needs to be elected by stating that Americans are at uncertain times and face serious threats, and that the “U.N. remains an uncertain instrument to help protect the safety of the American people and the safety and dignity of peoples worldwide.” Gingrich here has just made his position clear through a causal claim. His goal throughout the article will now try to display how Bolton can cause changes for the better. His choice of words, “protect” and “safety,” evoke pathos that people can sympathize with. Who does not want to feel safe from outside threats? Also his powerful one lined paragraph that follows, “America needs John Bolton because the U.N. has to change” induce logos.

Next, Gingrich suggests that the U.N. is the problem not Bolton and instead of apologizing for Bolton’s past faux pos, he avidly defends him. The situations that Gingrich describes use pathos appeals again to further enhance his argument. Along with a series of existence claims and a sympathetic but steadfast appeal Gingrich illustrates the horrors of other countries. For example, the existence claim that Gingrich presents the reader with is that there have been thousands of innocents murdered and maimed from New York to Istanbul without any U.N. intervention. Here Gingrich tries to widen his audience from Americans to citizens all over the world who have undergone terrorist threats. He further emphasizes this danger with recent events such as 9/11 and the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Genocide is another topic that grabs the reader emotionally along with the harsh words such as “rape, torture, and murder.” To conclude this section, Gingrich presents a causal claim when stating the corruption without response in “the Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq, sex crimes against innocent civilians involving U.N. peacekeepers in the Congo… [is] evidence of a U.N. in need of dramatic reforms.”

Gingrich now shifts from the problems of the U.N. and presents the reader with the incredible and impressive resume of John Bolton. In these next few paragraphs Gingrich displays Bolton’s accomplishments