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File Name | S21-Policy-Stoa-28-GEN-CleanHandsAmericanValues-1.docx |
File Size | 307.44 KB |
Date added | February 22, 2021 |
Category | Archived |
Tags | Debate, Policy, Season 21, Stoa |
Author | Vance Trefethen |
Summary: This is a generic Negative brief to help against Affirmative cases that argue for doing their plan, not because it actually solves a problem, but because it removes US responsibility for a problem (“clean hands”), or upholds certain “American values” like upholding human rights or avoiding civilian casualties. The problem will continue but at least the US won’t be responsible, and that’s supposed to be sufficient for an AFF ballot.
But the real world is never that simple. The U.S. has supported all manner of evil regimes and created numerous civilian casualties, all because those things were useful to us in the pursuit of higher objectives in our foreign policy. Human rights and civilian casualties in and of themselves are not magic trump cards that automatically win every argument. In the real world, they have to be weighed like any other arguments against the net benefits of the alternative policies. And don’t get us started on “American values.” U.S. foreign policy is littered with examples where human rights and civilian casualties were themselves casualties of other objectives, some of them very important. There is no “American value” that says we always uphold human rights or that we always avoid civilian casualties.