Let's have a debate

[Phony Moderate]

I'm willing to moderate a debate between two posters. It will be between the first two people who state in this thread they are willing to. The questions will be fairly random, but relevant (or at least I hope so ).

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

Okay, I'm in

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Okay, I'm in

I can debate my friend Teddy.

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

Alright, lets get it ON!!!

... lemme guess, he's offline I need to go to bed in 2 hours.

[Phony Moderate]

Ok. The first question goes to Teddy.

How would you handle the Afghanistan situation?

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

I will have a proper answer written up after I arrive to work.

Am I presuming we are debating from a world prospective?

[Bo]

Can I please be in another debate once this one is over?

[Phony Moderate]

Can I please be in another debate once this one is over?

Yeah.

[CatoMinor]

Can I please be in another debate once this one is over?

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

Oops, sorry, I forgot about this thread

I tend to be in debating mood after I get home from work. Perhaps it would be reasonable to break us off into time zones for debate? I'm good for anything between 7am and ending before 11am eastern time.

[Phony Moderate]

Can I please be in another debate once this one is over?

Yes.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Will Teddy ever respond?

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

(Sorry, I just really can't care less about foreign policy no really, I can't! I pretty well concede this question to you Kal, but, here goes...)

Afghanistan.
I will start off with a short answer, because I see this as a somewhat simple issue.

We went to Afghanistan to topple a corrupt dictatorship that the people did not want in power. We went there to bring them freedom. We went there to bring them proper rule of law. We went to Afghanistan because, from our understanding, that is what their citizens wanted and needed. Keeping that in mind, I present the following points.

> Stealing elections is a no-no. There are accusations this has been done, if true, we should withdraw. We can not and should not use our arms and force to support a government that does not maintain the confidence of the people.

> Corruption is a no no. Again, accusations that this has happened, and again, we cannot stand up for the things we went in, in the first place, to eliminate.

> If they want us to leave? We must leave. Period.

In sum, I think that we should keep our troops there for the time being. Sure, our boys might be dying, but they are dying for freedom. Afghan freedom is worth as much as American freedom, or Canadian freedom, or British freedom, or Polish freedom. We should not fret about people who die to save freedom, if we want to keep it, it's bound to happen.

[Phony Moderate]

Kalwejt, your rebuttal?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

The whole point of dealing with Afghanistan issue is that we simply have to understand a very different specific of this country.

Afghanistan obviously cannot be controlled by any foreign military force, which history proved many times and is proving now as well. Thus every attempts to hold it are already sentenced to failure.

We must realize that Afghanistan is a country where words like "government" or "society" means literally nothing. What really matters are tribes, clans and ethnic sectarian groups and to ensure a some kind of stability, the world need, in Afghanistan the west must deal with each of these groups like in business. It's difficult, but not impossible.

And about force withdrawal? First of all, military efforts will go nowhere anyway. Second of all, Afghan people already wants NATO forces to leave. Leaving is inventable and remaining will only worsen the situation.

[Phony Moderate]

Teddy, your response?

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

I agree that Afghanistan can not be and can never be controlled by a foreign military force. It could even be argued that it cannot be controlled by a domestic military force, but I do contest the assertion that Afghanistan has no "society" as we view it. Afghan culture is strong and historical, and while it may well be foreign to us - it is, in fact a foreign country - it does not make it any more or less valid. We are willing to allow them to be governed as they wish to be governed; They wish Sharia law while we here in the "West" would view that as mixing religion and politics.

I also contest that they want us to leave. I am not saying they want us to stay, but any official requests must come from the government, much as Iraq asked the USA to pull out and the USA responded. I re-iterate that this is not a decision we can make alone; we need to make these sorts of decisions in concert with the government of Afghanistan.