appeal to slogans, forms of religious expression, and casual demeanor.
of these expressions seemed to facilitate their success, but it also meant that Bush and his
advisors were not fully or directly responsible for the resonances they evoked. There was
an experimental dimension to the mobilization of popular support after 9/11.
IV. From 9/11 to 3/11
To suggest that affective mobilization after 9/11 had an experimental quality is
not to say that it was unsuccessful. In fact, the cultivation of popular support for war in
Iraq was relatively successful, especially considering mounting skepticism triggered by
the over-extension of American military forces abroad and the treatment of prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay. We now know that these concerns, along with the Abu Ghraib
prisoner abuse scandal, the abuse of civil liberties in the war on terror, and other domestic
crises such as hurricane Katrina, have posed serious challenges to government efforts at
managing public opinion and led to a decline of support for the war in Iraq and for the
Bush presidency more generally. But, in the months and weeks leading up to the fall of
Baghdad, these interventions appeared to have achieved a measure of success. In this
respect, they provide an instructive contrast to the mobilization efforts pursued in
connection with the Madrid bombing.
In the days following the March 11 bombings, the leaders of the governing
Partido Popular (PP) tried to use the attacks to win support for their campaign in the
national election of March 14. Spanish President José María Aznar and several of his
deputies within the PP attributed responsibility for the bombings to the Basque separatist
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. For a compelling discussion of Bush’s affective techniques, see: Gerald Ó Tuathail, “‘Just Out
Looking for a Fight’: American Affect and the Invasion of Iraq,” Antipode 35, no. 5 (2003): 856-70; for an
account of Bush’s use of religious expression, see: Laurie Goodstein, “A President Puts His Faith in
Providence,” New York Times (9 February 2003), Section 4, p. 4.
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Convention