The U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was justified.

1) The draft "The draft is not unconstitutional and has been used many times in U.S. history and was even used by President Abraham Lincoln to draft men in the U.S. Civil War to fight against the Confederacy, Woodrow Wilson to draft men to fight in World War 1 and even Franklin Roosevelt in World War 2, hopefully causes my opponent doesn't oppose." The draft is most certainly unconstitutional. And just because something has been done before does not mean it is right. True, the draft waas used in the Civil War and the World Wars, and my personal feelings on those matters is actually not relevant here, but I am firmly opposed to the draft. The draft takes everyday men and forces them to go into battle and fight for causes which they may not believe in. It is a violation of their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. "Every U.S. citizen has the obligation to serve when the time comes and they are physically able." Why? If the US invades Europe and implemented the draft would you fight? A person should have the right to decide which causes they believe are worth fighting for. Blind patriotism solves nothing, it turns citizens into slaves of their governments. "The point I'm trying to make is that the draft is currently a legitimate and constitutional form of the United States to recruit soldiers in a time of war and always has been." Just because something has not been yet ruled uncostitutional does not make it right. Slavery was 'constitutional' for the first hundred years of American history. Segregation was 'constitutional' until the 60's. Your point that it is currently legal serves no purpose in this debate. "To argue that during the Vietnam war drafting was unjustified and the theft of one's liberties would mean Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Wilson were opposed to civil liberties." What a logical fallacy we have here. You are jumping to conclusions that make no sense. I do believe the Vietnam War helped the government steal the liberties of citizens and in this respect FDR, Lincoln, and Wilson took liberties away. Lincoln especially did this, he suspended habius corpus for god's sake. This does not mean that they were opposed to personal liberties, only that they took civil liberties away in that sense. 2)We lost The Vietnam War as you pointed out was the U.S. aiding our ally(S. Vietnam) against the aggression and invasion by N.Vietnam. The U.S. pulled out of Vietnam in '73 and just over two years later, Saigon fell and the two Vietnam's converged to create the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in '75. If our objective was to defend our ally against their Communist aggressors, we failed. 3) Dead, Wounded My opponent misunderstands my point. I am saying that in hindsight if we were to see that so many of our own soldiers died only to fail at our objective in becoming involved(see point 2) the Vietnam War would not have been justified. "A war was inevitable due to the fact the North would not relent in attacking South Vietnam so large amounts of casualties due to a civil war were going to be unavoidable." A war between the two Vietnam's was inevtable at the time. I am not disputing that. I am claiming that our involvement in said war was not justified. And after the U.S. pulled out, N. Vietnam just went back in and took over. Do you think we should again implement the draft and go back in? 4) The atocities committed after the U.S. left Vietnam My opponent brings up a new point and claims that since there were human rights violations in Vietnam after we left, ending the war was not justified. This is not part of the debate. We are putting ourselves in the shoes of American leaders before they made the decisino to go into Vietnam. What did S. Vietnam gain from the war? what did the U.S. gain from the war? Nothing. Just about 50,000 dead soldiers just on the American side. http://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.english.illinois.edu...