Friday, May 7, 2010

Some thoughts on debating Afghanistan


Thoughts from McBride on the problems for the Aff with the Afghanistan slice of the topic:

Many aff’s ability to solve will be difficult given their inability to specific what happens after a withdrawal.

If the US reduces it’s military and police presence in Afghanistan can the US still continue to train the Afghan National Forces (ANF) to defeat the resurgent Taliban? The question is, would a complete withdrawal of the US military presence affect the ability of the Obama administration to encourage Taliban exclusion? The question in part asks what,exactly, constitutes US military presence. Can the US use DynCorp, the Virginia-based contractor that has been paid more than $1.2 billion since 2003, to continue training the Afghan police after a US withdrawal? And, does a withdrawal mean that the US is suddenly in acceptance of a Taliban controlled Afghanistan?

The old tried and true problem with most debate topics is that you can’t really topically specify what comes next. Absent a US presence in Afghanistan it will be hard to win that Obama’s non-physical insurgency/on the ground strategy will change much. Maybe there will be cards that say the administration will adapt to a pre-mature pull-out but I find it unlikely that these cards will assume the plan as opposed to Obama’s current goal of a limited withdrawal in 2011.

Example, if the current US strategy is to develop and gradually train the Afghan National Forces (ANF) to defeat the resurgent Taliban, what about the plan can topically change this? Let’s imagine that the training was somehow a result of US police presence in Afghanistan, even eliminating a police presence would still allow to train the ANF by other means. Given that the Obama administration is stepping up this effort, hoping to make the ANF the basis of a strategy that will allow the gradual turnover of tasks in July 2011.

OK, so what? I can imagine that a bunch of aff cards will depend on the notion of greater Taliban inclusion into the political process. How does that happen in a world where the ANF continues to hunt Taliban instead of Al-qeada? I guess the question is how much of the stabilization of Afghanistan depends on Taliban inclusion into the political process.

As long as the US views the Taliban as the enemy, Afghanistan will be incredibly polarized to the point of dsyfunctional.

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