ABSTRACT
President Reagan's creation of a very specific framework within which all threats were potential artifacts of terrorism and national security discourse was used to set forth an environment which permitted the Gulf War to assume legitimacy in the mindset of the citizenry. The editorial suggests that the invasion was the first major act of aggression in the postcold war era and that it characterizes how nations "define their interests in a new world order and what it may portend for piracy and terrorism". What is important for this text is the fact that the Bush Doctrine, as a response to a massive crisis of conscience and ideology, calls forth the use of "good and bad" that had been staples of the past 30 years of presidential rhetoric regarding terrorism. In addition, the fear experienced as a result of the World Trade Center bombing of 1993. The Oklahoma City bombing as terrorism is evidence of the definitional variations that surround terrorism.
