ABSTRACT
In this chapter I categorize some of the narrative strips from Chapter 4 thematically, demonstrating the connection between speaker and audience made through the use of myth, memory, militarism and the positioning of privileged emotions. Thus, I begin by presenting some additional background on public memory and the cultural myths that underpin the original Bush narrative, and then highlight the narrative features from the soldiers’ stories that resonate with the cultural assumptions underpinning these myths: chosenness, innocence and hero. I also demonstrate the connection between speaker and audience through speech acts embedded in militarism and public memories. Then, I demonstrate the uptake of an association between 9/11 and Iraq. I argue that this association played a significant role in evoking feelings of anger, humiliation and revenge toward not only al Qaeda, but also Saddam Hussein and Iraq. The uptake of this link empowered the Iraq War narrative, feeding it the emotional attachment necessary to make it persuasive. Finally, I establish a relationship between the participants’ narrative patterns and the themes inherent in aspects of revenge and humiliation.
