President Barack Obama addresses soldiers during his visit to Afghanisant in May 2012. Official White House photo by Pete Souza
Aristotle told us some 2000 years ago, in the Art of Rhetoric, that there are three dimensions to a successful speech: ethos, pathos and logos, the character the speaker, the sympathy with the audience, and the content. President Barack Obama’s speech to the nation during his surprise visit to Afghanistan this week might introduce a fourth: topos, or sense of place.
This speech was first and foremost about using the topos: Obama was speaking to the nation from Bagram Air Base (the title of the speech was “Address to the Nation from Afghanistan”). That takes a minute or two to think through. He was not talking to the US troops at Bagram, or the Afghan troops or to the Afghani people. He was speaking to people in homes all across America, from “the mighty mountains of New York” to “the curvaceous slopes of California”.
So the “meaning” of this speech is framed by the topos. It defined how his audience were informed. It gave Obama appeal – speaking from Bagram Air Base, he was stating that it was safe for an American President to set foot in Afghanistan – with all that that meant for the war being won. It also gave him personal power – he was a President speaking from a foreign country, a country now controlled by America. And it gave him chutzpah, especially as we know now Bin Laden specifically instructed his al Qaeda operatives to seek ways to shoot down Obama on flights into Bagram.
Being The Commander in Chief
But above all it allowed him to choose what sort of character, what ethos, he wish to convey to his audience. In this speech Obama was “The man in charge”. His referred to himself twice at key points in the speech as “The Commander-in-Chief”, rather than President, a term that resonated beyond its military reference. Obama used this speech to reinforce his presence, to convey himself as a strong man, and to underpin his status as the man in charge – key in the run up to American elections. He knows that this image will have presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney on the defensive.
In this speech, he was able to send a picture (literally) into American homes of himself as a man of action, the Commander in Chief, in a way that Romney will always find it difficult to emulate – Romney’s attraction, his ethos is about “success”, not command. And the latter is a vital aspect in American electoral decision making: “Is this candidate up to running the country, to taking us to war?”
Now, coming to the pathos of the speech: this address was all about connecting with Americans, sharing in their concerns over the war. The second half of the speech, in which Obama directly addresses these concerns, is much more caring, both in tone and language. He stated, for example: “Today, we recall the fallen and those who suffered wounds, both seen and unseen.”
The comment “both seen and unseen” is an unusual remark for a Commander-in-Chief: It speaks of, and to, a modern sensibility. A “caring commander” is a very powerful statement in a Presidential campaign.
How do we get out of here?
Contrast this tone with the first half of the speech, in which he outlined, almost perfunctorily, how “we will complete our mission and end the war in Afghanistan.” Said Obama, “First, we’ve begun a transition to Afghan responsibility for security…. Second, we are training Afghan security forces to get the job done…”
It’s a small detail but worth noting – Obama used a list of five points here. Numbers. He wants this explanation to go direct to the audience’s rational understanding. The sentences are short; meaning is unequivocal. There is no emotion here.
And in turn, this point unlocks the most interesting aspect of the whole speech. There is no emotion when he talks of Afghanistan. There is not a single reference to the suffering of the people of Afghanistan – in contrast to his remarks about the “half a million of our sons and daughters have sacrificed to protect our country”, or “3,000 innocent men, women and children” killed by Al Qaeda in attacks on the United States. It is as though the Afghan people have been bystanders, indeed as he remarked, “[C]ivilians in Afghanistan have done their duty.”
Which is the President and this speech’s undoing. He may be using the topos – but he does not understand it.
Watch the President’s speech here:
To read a full transcript of President Obama’s Address to the Nation from Afghanistan, visit VoiceGig.