Darwin Lecture Theatre 2, 11/11/09, 6pm
Closely related to last weeks debate and in recognition of Remberance Day we turn our attentions to the UK’s military involvement in Afghanistan. An involvement that has become increasingly controversial as more and more troops get injured or, most tragically, killed in the conflict.
The proposition in this debate will want to persuade the audience that enough is enough. Too many young lives have been lost for an increasingly dubious cause. They may decide to justify the withdrawl as a consequence of the increasing casualties suffered or they may want to go right back to questioning the original reasons for the UK’s involvement. Most importantly they will want to prove that the British militarty’s conintual involvement in Afghanistan is detrimental rather than beneficial to the aims it sought to achieve.
The opposition, on the other hand, will want to emphasise the importance of struggle. That to pull out before the job is finished is wrong, Afghanistan was occupied to introduce democracy and to allow the Afghan people access to the same rights we enjoy, just because the aims are tough is no reason for the troops to be withdraw. They may also want to deflect some of the proposition’s more emotive arguments by emphasising the fact that soldiers become soldiers out of choice, they know the risks when they join the armed forces.
Links to help research:
http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=145 a summary of some of the issues (BEWARE OF THE CONTEXT)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/03/afghanistan-terror-taliban-al-qaida an argument for
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/04/kim-howells-afghanistan-withdrawal an argument against
Wednesday (4/11/09), 6pmDLT1