CLINTON, N.Y., Sept. 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- "President Bush's speech to the U.N. missed the mark--its 'us versus them' rhetoric of division and confrontation is too simplistic to win adherents who are not already in accord with his vision," says Hamilton College rhetoric and communications professor John Adams.

"The president's use of the rhetoric of polarization positions us against 'them' without stopping to consider what it is that drives people to terror, to suicide, to apparently diabolical acts of violence against other human beings. His rhetoric creates a divide that sets out to eliminate the middle ground--where negotiation, dialogue, or further conversation can take place," Adams says.

"Somebody needs to ask the terrorists what they want. Do we know what they want? Does anybody know what they want? By asking their apparent leaders this question, and listening to their answers, we may at least be reminded of what they're fighting for, so we may better understand what we're fighting for. These questions need not be seen as the opening gambit in a spin toward appeasement, but as an attempt to get the terrorists to elaborate their visions of the better world their acts of terror seek to create--what good they hope to accomplish," says Adams.

John Adams, who received his Ph.D. University of Washington, has taught rhetoric, communications, public speaking and speech-writing for more than 25 years. He has published many books and articles, the most recent of which have focused on the rhetoric of conversion.