War on Terror as a “Fight for the Rights and Dignity of Women” A Discourse Analysis of the U.S. Liberation Campaign for Afghan Women

The events of September 11, 2001 (9/11) continue to morph American identity. 9/11 warranted a frame – a narrative – to explain and assign meaning to the sudden death of nearly three-thousand men and women. The phrase “war on terror” was first used by Bush in an address to Congress on September 20, 2001, and since then, the term has entered into common global lexicon. This paper argues that as a result of this “war on terror” frame, public discourse and foreign policy has consistently viewed the world through a militaristic lens. Based on a discourse analysis, I find that the state and media mutually reinforce strict binaries – civility/barbarity, freedom/oppression, Judaea-Christianity/Islam, progress/tradition, the protector/the protected and democracy/tyranny. These binaries are not unique; rather, many are rooted in imperialist, colonial, and Orientalist legacies, where narrative often relies on gendered rhetoric – a key aspect that this paper focuses on. It argues that gendered discourse and politicalized representations of Afghan women worked to gain domestic support for the U.S.-led occupation in Afghanistan. In response to waning domestic support for the war in Afghanistan, government officials, media outlets, and aid organizations invoke mythic war narratives (i.e. arguments about good versus evil) – which often rely on the victimization of Afghan women – as a means to gain bipartisan domestic support for military involvement. While I examine the war on terror frame generally, my aim for this paper is to specially address the U.S. liberation campaign for Afghan women by examining U.S. policy and speech discourse and media’s portrayal on the matter using critical discourse analysis (CDA)