BUSH'S MOTIVATIONS IN STARTING THE IRAQ WAR 2003: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

11 September attack was the starting point for long years of a bloody war. After this attack the American President George W. Bush declares 'war on terror', starting with accusing the Iraqi regime led by Saddam Hussein of Possessing WMDs and aiding AL-Qaeda. Because of the lack of the studies on this topic from Critical discourse analysis perspective, the researchers employ Wodak's (2001, 2009) discourse-historical approach and van Leeuwen's (2008) sociological categories of actor representation approach, trying to answer some questions related to Bush's uses of macro and micro strategies in his speech in addition to revealing his uncovered ideology. The findings of the analysis have revealed that Bush uses topoi of war, threat, and terrorism to support his view that the Iraqi regime is a source of danger on all the nations especially the America and its allies in the Middle East. Bush also exaggerates the level of threat that Saddam Hussein represents as there is neither Chemical nor biological weapons and there is no link between Saddam Hussein and AL-Qaeda as he claimed. Thus, Bush mislead the world to a war that he minimizes its threat as "relatively short and hugely successful", however it continues for nine years in which hundreds of thousands lost their lives in both sides. Even though, Bush promises Iraqis with freedom and democracy yet Iraqis suffer sectarian war, ISIS and a corrupted government till now.