Claims and Evidence Drill
Analyze this letter.
September 4, 1990
President Saddam Hussein
clo Ambassador al- Machat
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to you to send my student son, Thomas Hart Benton Ewald, home to his family. He was taken, I think, from theSAS Hotel in Kuwait City.
I feel I have the obligation to appeal to you for two reasons. First, my family has been a staunch friend to the Arabs. My husband, Tom's father, was on the White House Staff when President Eisenhower caused the French, British, and Israelis to pull out of Suez. One of the first non-Arab meetings at the Washington Mosque was the one which I, as presidentof the Radcliffe (Harvard) Club of Washington, arranged to explain Muslim culture. I am also a poet who has written aboutArabia. I have sent my youngest, well-loved son to work in an Arab country, hoping he would help bring peace betweenour cultures. Instead, after two days, he was caught up in war. It seems unjust that I, who have given to you so generously,should have my son taken away from me in return. You have the power to right that wrong.
Second, my son is asthmatic, so severely crippled as a child that we thought we could never raise him, He needs medication and a doctor's care.
I beg you, in the name of Allah, let my son go.
Yours truly,
Mary Ewald
Exigence:
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I love it when students ask, “Isn’t manipulation bad?” The answers lead to delightful rabbit holes and cool conspiracy theories.