Constitutive Rhetoric Reconsidered: Constitutive Paradoxes in G. W. Bush's Iraq War Speeches

In the process of trying to create identification between Americans and the Iraqis, making them partners in a democratic founding, President G. W. Bush's Iraq war rhetoric contributed to conditions that were diametrically opposed to democratic transformation. His discourse, grounded in prophetic dualism, created what I refer to as "constitutive" paradoxes that reveal both limitations and reflexive possibilities of constitutive rhetorics.