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"Clash of civilizations" rhetoric dominates both
presidential speeches in the wake of the disaster and the statements of
Osama Bin Laden to Arab-speaking television. Such rhetoric has had
many critics in academia and the world of letters, and even those who accept
presenting world debate in binary terms may challenge how the "us" versus
"them" debate is structured.
In constrast to White House speeches, there are
other rhetorics from U.S. government officials and agencies that do not
assume the premise that there exists a fundamental divide in the world
audience between "Western" and "Eastern" ideology. For example, the
State Department often addresses the world audience as a unified whole,
albeit one in which a global public needs to be "educated" about
the U.S. "message."
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