34. The United States should adopt a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

DEFINITIONS: Okay, I accept. Although, my opponent dooms himself. A timetable is not an immediate withdrawal: it sets up dates where a certain number of troops can leave. Therefore, the ‘Counter-plan' is stopped at the start. WE CAN DO BOTH. First we can soft partition, then leave. SOFT PARTITION: First off, most Iraqis want their country to remain unified. (http://www.csmonitor.com...) "Moreover, in poll after poll, a majority of Iraqis has indicated that they wish the country to remain unified. For example, the International Republican Institute reported in July 2006 that 66 percent of Iraqis opposed segregation by ethnicity or sect." Also, the U.S. is causing more problems. The reason most terrorists are terrorists is because they hate a person, cause, or group (in this case the United States). If U.S. troops killed one of the 80,000 civilians, and that person was in your family, you probably would seek revenge. (http://balancedpolitics.org...) "Much of the Muslim world resents the presence of American troops, and it is an easy source of terrorist recruitment and anti-American propaganda. The lifeblood of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is propaganda. To ensure successful continuance of their war, they must replenish their losses with a steady stream of new recruits. They also must be able to manipulate the press and weak politicians. In short, they must make themselves look like "freedom fighters". As long as American troops are in Iraq, all they have to do is put together videos showing soldiers in Muslim lands, as well as videos of Iraqi civilians suffering in hospitals. It won't matter to Al Jazeera & other biased media "reporters" that almost all civilian deaths in Iraq are a result of the terrorist insurgent actions, the Americans will still get blamed. And a new generation of terrorists and America haters will continue to grow." Therefore, by leaving, we solve the Sunni- Shiite- Kurdish conflict. Finally, soft partition is immoral. This completely contradicts American values. We had ethnic separation, and look how that turned out. We should not prevent conflict by separating people: we should be trying to meld every person in the middle east into one big community. CON #1 says soft partition is inevitable. That is a highly abusive argument. If it is inevitable, I have no ground to argue. It's like saying my shirt is white. It obviously is, and it's not arguable. Also that carries no weight. The fact that it is inevitable does not change whether it is good or not. Throw this card out. CON #2 says 1 million would be dead. This card has no warrant. It simply makes a comparison to a Bosnia situation and throws an Iraq opinion in there. Also, as I said, much of the hate is ignited by Americans: something that can be solved. CON #3 says that we have a moral obligation to help. I agree. But the way we do that is to leave Iraq. Once again please cross-apply the argument about how we are causing the problem. If we really want to prevent this conflict, we send aid to the UN to keep the peace or something of the like. MY CASE: Cost- This is obviously a win for PRO. The cost of the war is costing the U.S. over $500 Billion. Bringing our troops home will free up billions of dollars that can be used to fix our economy, help decrease crime, and educate our children. THAT'S what we should be focusing on. Using a soft partition would possibly cost MORE, albeit making it go quicker, but it would take a lot of time and effort to do. Pretenses- My opponent again links it back to soft partition. Cross- apply my argument to the ‘Americans causing' and the ‘opinion' arguments to this one. Deaths- my opponent concedes my case. Building a soft partition would lead to a LOT more deaths of Americans. Many Iraqis won't want to move and they will get mad at the U.S. They could go as far as to kill them. Again, that's why this war is immoral. We must keep our troops from dying. As for Iraqis, we've already killed 80,000 of them. I negated my opponent's argument about the 1 million dying. The best thing we could do is to just back away and let them live their lives. Opinion- I DID answer this. Look at the first card. CSM says most Iraqis favor a unified country. 66% of the OVERALL population, not just specific groups, want a unified country. We should look at what the population wants, not just what individual ethnic groups wants. My evidence is superior. Thank you.