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Alexa Fisher
ENG 112
Ashley Marcum
9-16-14
Obamas Anniversary Speech of 9/11
We all remember the day, ten years ago when the twin towers were hit and when the
Pentagon was headed down the same path. A few thousand people died from this tragic event.
Hundreds of people were jumping out of the windows and trying to get out of the buildings as
fast as possible. The end resulted in both towers crumbling to the ground and led us to war.
Obamas speech on the anniversary of 9/11 uses pathos to get his message across to Americans
that he has a broken heart as well as thousands of others.
Obama refers to the 9/11 attacks with sadness, honor for our soldiers, and grief of the
lives lost that day. In paragraph six of his speech, our president says, These past ten years have
shown Americas resolve to defend its citizens, and our way of life (Obama, paragraph 6). We
as Americans might have let it happen, but we have risen from it and become a stronger nation.
The 9/11 attacks is not debatable, it did happen. President Obama said, Airplane
wreckage smoldered on a Pennsylvania field. Friends and neighbors; sisters and brothers;
mothers and fathers; sons and daughters they were taken from us with heartbreaking swiftness
and cruelty (Obama, paragraph 1). Firefighters, policemen and passengers who rolled through
the cockpit, helped the thousands in desperate need of help. This day forever changed the lives of
millions and forced war upon us. Soon after, our president George W. Bush declared, War on

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Terror. This speech ended up with Americans leaving families and homes to serve our nation
for a greater purpose, war. President Obama says, On September 12, 2001, we awoke to a world
in which evil was closer at hand, and uncertainty clouded out future (Obama, paragraph 1). Our
president was trying to reach out to Americans. He was trying to let us know that he understood
how many Americans were truly having their hearts ripped from their chest and how scared we
really were. He wanted us to know that the attacks on us were real and the problem was not
going to just disappear.
In President Obamas 9/11 10th anniversary speech, he uses pathos again by sharing a
story to us about his personal experience with a letter that was sent to him from a woman who
had lost loved ones in the 9/11 attack. The letter was from a woman named Suzanne Swaine. She
told him that she had lost her husband and brother from the twin towers attack. Suzanne tells him
that they would be proud of her children if her family members were here today and had got to
experience them growing up. With Obama putting his own personal experience in, it makes me
understand what kind of person he might be. One that doesnt just work for the United States of
America, but hurts just as much as we do by any means. Obama states that Weve known war
and recession; passionate debates and political divides (Obama, paragraph 2). He said in his
speech that we cannot go back in time and change the past, but we can change the future and
prevent it from happening again. Obama said, More than monuments, that will be the legacy of
9/11 a legacy of firefighters who walked into fire and soldiers who signed up to serve; of
workers who raised new towers, citizens who faced down fear, and children who realized the
dreams of their parents(Obama, paragraph 13). In this he clarifies the heartbreak he felt along
with many other Americans.

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The sacrifices of these men and women, and of our military families, reminds us that the
wages of war are great; that while their service to our nation is full of glory, war itself is never
glorious. Our troops have been to lands unknown to many Americans a decade ago, (Obama,
paragraph 7). By these words he expresses to us how war is never something we want. Hundreds
of our Americans had to go to war because of this terrorist attack on America. It was not
something we wanted, but something that was needed to reprimand the hand that struck us.
Obama says, These past ten years have shown Americas resolve to defend its
citizens, and our way of life. Diplomats serve in far off posts, and intelligence professionals work
tirelessly without recognition. Two million Americans have gone to war since 9/11. They have
demonstrated that those who do us harm cannot hide from the reach of justice, anywhere in the
world, (Obama, paragraph 7). Obama shows logic because the war was needed but not entirely
wanted. But he tells us that even though it might not be wanted, it is necessary for a brighter
future for America. We must stand together to put aside our lives and defend our country. But
our strength is not measured in our ability to stay in these places; it comes from our commitment
to leave those lands to free people and sovereign states, and our desire to move from a decade of
war to a future of peace, (Obama, paragraph 5). Our leaders decided that if we did not help
make them better, attacks like 9/11 will happen again. Our president also stated in his speech,
These ten years have shown that we hold fast to our freedoms. Yes, we are more vigilant
against those who threaten us, and there are inconveniences that come with our common
defense (Obama, paragraph 8). Basically, if we did not go to war then there would be more
problems than if we did not. Obama uses persuasion by using the war as a necessity, it was
needed.

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President Obamas 9/11 speech used emotion to relate to pathos in his essay to win over
America. Overall his speech reminded us about what happened and how we will never forget the
effect of 9/11 and what it did to our country and the citizens. The speech was also used to
persuade voters to re-elect him on his presidential election in 2012 for his second term. President
Obama says, With a just God as our guide, let us honor those who have been lost; let us
rededicate ourselves to the ideals that define our nation, and let us look to the future with hearts
full of hope. May God bless the memory of those we lost, and may God Bless the United States
of America (Obama, paragraph 14). He wrapped everything up by referring to God. With the
share of love for God and our country we are united.

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Works Cited
Obama. Obamas Speech on the Anniversary of 9/11. The Wall Street Journal. 2012.
Washington Wire. Web. September 21, 2014.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/09/11/obamas-speech-on-the-anniversary-of-911/
Dulciena Staff. On This Day: President Bush Declares War on Terror. Finding Dulciena.
September 20, 2011. Web. September 21, 2014.
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/September-October-08/On-this-Day-President-Bush-Declares--War-on-Terror-.html