President Obama's Syria Address

            In his September 10^th address to the nation regarding our relation with Syria, President Obama makes it clear that the United States will not turn its head the other way when it comes to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. He makes a point that chemical weapons were used in the Holocaust, which strengthens his argument of not allowing Syria to go any further with their use of chemical weapons. 

After 15 minutes of hearing President Obama discuss the situation happening in Syria, viewers learn that the President believes that it is in the national security’s best interest to respond through a military strike. Because the speech was 15 minutes long, it is safe to say that the speech had cognitive effects. This is because the cognitive effect is the message effect associated with short-term learning.

Although the speech was roughly 15 minutes long, it has stirred people’s thoughts and opinions on the situation for far longer. The Washington Post published an article expressing four takeaways from President Obama’s speech. The four descriptions explain what exactly people are thinking about now after President Obama’s speech.  The details or key points a viewer took away from the speech affects the way they think about the ongoing situation in Syria, thus giving President Obama’s speech cognitive effects.