portrays the enemy as the voluntary aggressor and the nation of the audience as the passive victims of aggression, only entering into war to ensure security (Ivie 290). "While the savage has acted against order, the victim has been forced to respond in its defense" (Ivie 290). Ivie describes the actions as either "voluntary" and "initial" or "involuntary" and "defensive" (Ivie 290). The purpose of this topos is to lay the blame on the enemy and justify reasons for the victimized nation to engage in action. Examples Woodrow Wilson Urges Congress to Declare War on Germany - Woodrow Wilson's April 2, 1917 speech advising Congress to declare war on Germany Pearl Harbor speech - Franklin D. Roosevelt's address to Congress after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941 German Declaration of War on the United States - Adolf Hitler's December 11, 1941 Reichstag speech Gulf of Tonkin Incident - Lyndon B. Johnson's August 5, 1964 message to Congress Bush's War Rhetoric Reveals the Anxiety that Iran Commands - A 2007 article from The Washington Post outlining how George W. Bush's rhetoric on Iran (and elsewhere) was often coupled with fear of World War III and/or nuclear annihilation. References Bibliography Brock, Bernard L., ed. Kenneth Burke and the 21st Century. Albany: State University of New York P, 1999. Ivie, Robert L. "Images of Savagery in American Justifications for War," Communication Monographs 47 (1980): 279–294. Ivie, Robert L. "The Rhetoric of Bush's "War" on Evil." KB Journal 1 (2004). 2 Feb. 2007 <https://web.archive.org/web/20070927230132/http://kbjournal.org/node/53>. Reid, Ronald F. "New England Rhetoric And the French War, 1754-1760: A Case Study In the Rhetoric of War," Communication Monographs 43 (1976): 259–286. External links War Rhetoric - The Library of Rhetoric Robert Ivie's Homepage Current White House Use of Pro-war Rhetoric War Rhetoric and Deliberation in the Aftermath of the September 11th Terrorist Attacks Rhetoric Propaganda techniques War and politics Causes of war