Yes, America Has Changed by Andrew Sullivan

¶ … Yes, America Has Changed" by Andrew Sullivan In the article entitled, "Yes, America Has Changed," author Andrew Sullivan discussed his interpretation of one of the numerously-written and -- opined topics in the country these days: the September 11 bombing at the World Trade Center in New York City. In it, Sullivan provides the readers with his own argument, positing that the event that was the World Trade Center bombing elicited feelings of rage among Americans.

Sullivan, in order to establish the assertion that, indeed, Americans felt rage after the 9/11 bombing, cited specific facts in which he considered are issues that his countrymen should feel angry about. Thus, he went on to describe the alleged involvement of other Middle Eastern, Muslim countries to the bombing, which included, among others, Saudi Arabia.

He furthermore established his stance by comparing the bombing with events such as the Second World War and Cold War, events that left millions of people dead, and in which, Sullivan attests, America had become "vulnerable." The article ends abruptly from the author's line of argument: the first three paragraphs showed the psychological effects of the 9/11 bombing to the American psyche, as well as psychological explanations that attempt to uncover the likely responses of people after witnessing a tragic incident in their lives; the next paragraphs provided arguments insinuating that Middle Eastern countries have been involved primarily in the attack, pointing specifically to Islam, Nazism, and communism as "forces" that served as the catalyst for a 'new war' to be declared between the Middle Eastern countries and America; and the last paragraph showed a complete shift of discussion, focusing on the effects and potential effects that the event have or may have to the American society.

Evidently, the structure of the article is incoherent; readers cannot easily follow Sullivan's line of argument, jumping from emotional to rational and back to emotional explanations in arguing the fact that Americans felt and should feel rage after the 9/11 bombing. Despite the lengthy arguments he provided, the author had failed his readers in convincing them to believe his position, mainly because he did not provide facts that proves his thesis. The first three paragraphs contained the author's discussion about the psychological perspective explaining how people respond to tragic events.

Sullivan cites the "flashbulb memory" phenomenon, which, unfortunately, had nothing to do at all with the rest of his arguments. He used this information, i.e., the flashbulb memory, as one way of coping with the trauma of witnessing a tragic incident in one's life. However, this is beside the point Sullivan was trying to make at the end of his three-paragraph discussion: he had not proven that witnesses of the 9/11 bombing had experienced feelings of denial and Americans had feelings of rage because of the event.

He had merely suggested that the "appropriate response" that Americans must have is rage after the 9/11 bombing. The succeeding paragraphs did little to convince the readers about the truth of Sullivan's assertion. He argued through hasty generalizations, making grand statements that have not been backed up with facts or additional information that would have convinced readers that what he was saying is true and not just sweeping or motherhood statements.

The author committed fallacies in arguing that Islam has a "totalitarian" nature, that Saudi Arabia is "the chief exporter of a murderous ideology," and that "educated men and women .. vie with another to provide glib, desperate rationalizations for the murderers of 9/11: arrogant American global power somehow deserved payback .. " These statements are unfounded and not supported by any credible source, even statistics to which the reader may turn to in order to establish the validity of the author's claims.

A totalitarian Islam is only an allegation, and Sullivan did not provide proof or evidence that indeed, Islam is a totalitarian form of religion. Furthermore, the claim that Saudi Arabia.