Resolved: The United States whould end Plan Colombia

I will begin my first speech by attacking my opponents case. He/She has stated many times in their speech that Plan Columbia is bad. Well they are arguing the wrong side here. The resolved states that the United States should end Plan Columbia. Since they are con in this debate she should be arguing for Plan Columbia to stay as it is, but all of their evidence is just stating reasons why Plan Columbia is bad. This means that every single argument they have made is faulty and must fall in the final decision of this debate. So now I will begin building my own case. United States social reformist Henry Ward Beecher once said "A man that has lost moral sense is like a man in battle with both of his legs shot off: he has nothing to stand on." It is because my partner and I believe that we need a moral leg to stand on when it comes to the welfare of the Colombian people that we must stand in the firmest affirmation of the Resolved: The United States should end Plan Colombia. When looking at this resolution the affirmative offers the following definition for Plan Colombia: Plan Colombia is the name of a United States military and diplomatic aid initiative aimed at combating Colombian drug cartels and insurgent groups in Colombian territory. When looking at this issue, the affirmative must look at how the effects of the plan are detrimental to our morals and logic. Contention 1: Plan Colombia has not been effective. Although the United States has already pumped $10 Billion into the plan, Colombia is still leading the world in coca productions. From The Washington Post: "Just two years after it ceased to be the world"s largest producer, falling behind Peru, Colombia now grows more illegal coca than Peru and third-place Bolivia combined. [...] Cocaine consumption in the United States fell in the past decade while methamphetamine and heroin use soared. But a glut of cheap product could bring a new cocaine rush." Which means that not only has the United States been wasting its money and military troops on a plan that has not halted coca production, but it"s also making cocaine much cheaper and just as accessible to our own citizens as before. Therefore, it isn"t benefiting the US or Colombia. Contention 2: The plan is doing very little nowadays to halt coca production. In past years, the main course of action that was being taken to slow the coca supply was the herbicide of coca fields, which was found to be ineffective, harmful to the crop of regular food farmers, and has recently been suspended. Now, The government has said it will focus its fight against drugs on manual eradication, alternative development programs and voluntary eradication, without giving any sort of plan to carry this out. Seems kind of vague, right? That's because it is. Plan Colombia"s objectives and strategies are in a sort of grey area at the moment, and since the cocaine production is still at its peak without many measures being taken to fix this, the plan ends up being kind of obsolete. Contention 3: U.S. Soldiers have violated many human rights during their Plan Columbia deployments. Colombia Reports revealed that between 2003 and 2007, at least 54 children were sexually abused by U.S. troops, who were not prosecuted because of their immunity granted by clauses in bilateral agreements. In his report, the historian cited a 2004 case in the central Colombian town of Melgar where 53 underage girls were allegedly sexually abused by nearby stationed military contractors "who moreover filmed [the abuse] and sold the films as pornographic material." While the negative may try to talk down these horrific crimes brought upon the Colombian people by our own, we cannot ignore the facts of the harm we have caused, all for little to no detriments to the country"s coca productions. Since coca productions have not halted or slowed, there is no "greater good" to justify these assaults, and we have a moral obligation to the Colombian people to get rid of the plan to assure we will no longer have these problems. To conclude, Plan Colombia is a plan that is ineffective for both the United States and Colombia, and therefore every bit of morality and logic should be telling us to get rid of the plan. It is for all of these reasons that I must strongly urge a Pro ballot in today"s debate.