Uncle Sam Jykell Or Hyde?

English 101-06

September, 7, 2005

Response exercise/essay

Uncle Sam: Jekyll or Hyde?

In this article Zakaria tries to get us to understand what he thinks is the proposed problem with the Bush administration. The over-arching claim of this article is that the Bush administration has a Jekyll and Hyde problem, a contradictory attitude toward the war on terror. In addition some in the administration are political "tough guys" who want to take care of business without such niceties as international law.

In this article Zakaria addresses many different audiences. First of all are the readers of Newsweek, the American public looking for the answers to political enigmas. These are the people who write letters and get things moving. The next audience is the Bush administration, the source of the problem. By reaching them Zakaria has a better chance of making a difference. The administration needs to change in order to fix the problem. Another audience might be the soldiers. The soldiers have the moral

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obligation to do what is right even if it is not what is wanted of them.

Zakaria uses sufficient evidences and motivational appeals to support his claim. The historian Walter Russell Mead provides his first support. Mead has stated that the Bush administration fits into the Jacksonian tradition in American politics. This "Jacksonian tradition" refers to the belief that normal rules of war are suspended when dealing with dishonorable enemies.

The next support Zakaria uses is when in 2002 Rumsfeld asserted that the Conventions did not apply to "today's set of facts". In Zakarias words it "was this sense of toughness that led Rumsfeld to authorize various forms