Narrativizing the Surge: From Quagmire to Counterinsurgency in Iraq

Abstract

In 2006 President George W. Bush and his advisers devised a strategy, known as the “surge,” to combat the growing insurgency in Iraq. It is widely credited with reducing violence and stabilizing the country. Although surge troops were removed from Iraq, the narrative of the surge remains a rhetorical resource for defense hawks. This paper examines the uses of that narrative to (re)orient American security policy by analyzing the arguments of Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham from 2007–2015. Re-narrativizing the Iraq war with the surge foregrounded has two rhetorical effects: it reconstitutes the initial quagmire stage of the war as merely a test of American resolve and justifies confining war deliberation to the technical sphere.

Keywords:

• Narrative
• Senator John McCain
• Spheres of argument
• War rhetoric

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Roger Stahl, Thomas Lessl, and Robert Rowland for their invaluable feedback on various iterations of this essay.

Manuscript History/Grant Information

A previous version of this essay was presented at the Southern States Communication Association Annual Convention in 2017.