Tarrant County College Speech and Debate Team

US Imperialism Kritik (Parli, IPDA)

Tarrant County College Speech and Debate Team

Thesis
After the Vietnam War, US imperialism changed; when in the past, our method of
control was direct and forceful, a public sick and tired of war forced a temporary
decline in imperial control. However, under President Carter, US imperialism
changed. Actual deployment of troops fell, but was strategically replaced by USbacked surrogate armies, first in Africa, the Middle East, then in South America.
By puppeting local militias, the US empire expanded globally without the negativity
associated with sending in US troops.
This has abstracted the violence the state commits. This abstraction and
detachment means that the state is no longer responsible to those who provide the
labor necessary to reproduce the state. (Timcke, 2014)
This is the method of the modern US Empire forcing civil conflict to further its own
interest, so as not to have to put US boots on the ground which would piss off our
public. We overthrow regimes by forcing civilians to take up US arms, and we
militarize their law enforcement. Look to the examples all over the Middle East, and
to the countries relevant in the War on Drugs, and how we either forced ourselves
into their government or had it overthrown.

Tarrant County College Speech and Debate Team

Framework
Definitions
Epistemology the study of knowledge and justified belief
Imperialism imperialism is the oppression and exploitation of underdeveloped
countries by developed countries (Kautsky)

Critical examination of the affs epistemology solves real world

policy problems
1. The round should be judged based on which team best examines the
epistemology of United States foreign policy. (that is, the beliefs that are
reflected deeply by US foreign policy, and go largely unexamined)
a. Critically examining the way the world functions is the first step toward
knowing what ought to be different.
i. Without an examination of epistemologies, we cant find
underlying issues which ought to be fixed. Finding and
diagnosing a problem is the first step toward fixing it.
ii. Sharing and discussing the diagnosis of a problem is the next
step in solving it look to Marxs diagnosis of capitalism and
how it has shaped modern critique of capitalism.

No perms
1. Co-option results in our voice being taken and used to justify actions we dont
support.
a. By trying to adopt our advocacy and do their plan, the affirmative
attempts to take our specific critique of Imperialism and fit it into their
own worldview. The K cannot be permed by an imperialist advocacy
they conflict at an epistemological level.
2. The affirmatives 1AC was founded upon imperialist assumptions dont let
them change that advocacy. The affirmative rejecting the assumptions they
already advocated for creates a moving target. If the affirmative can
constantly shift advocacies, neg never wins.
a. Shifting advocacies arms the educational value of the debate. Instead
of clashing on a topic, the affirmative simply has to avoid the
advocacies the neg finds issue with, wasting neg speech time and
destroying the educational value of debate, which comes from layered
discussion on specific topics.

Tarrant County College Speech and Debate Team

Links
Link Syria

Tarrant County College Speech and Debate Team

Implications
US Imperialism has environmental and lethal consequences
1. US Imperialism exploits the environment in order to sustain itself the US
military relies on natural resources to commit violent expansion, and relies on
violent expansion to obtain resources.
a. The US military is the largest institutional consumer of oil in the world
according to the Operational Energy Annual Report in 2012, the US
military used over 100 million barrels of oil, powering ships, vehicles,
aircraft, and ground operations.
i. Without the need for global domination, the US military wouldnt
use so much oil.
b. This disregard for the environment, and this unquestioned belief that
we can sustain this growth forever is inherently flawed. Resources are
limited; the endless need for exploitation that is inherent to US
imperialism will inevitably lead to extinction.
2. This exploitation of natural resources results in biosphere collapse.
a. The biosphere is on the brink of collapse. According to a scientifically
reviewed article by Dr. Glenn Barry published in the international
journal Management of Environmental Quality, critical boundaries for
the sustainability of life on earth are already being exceeded. The point
of no return is nearing, though the ability of earths habitats to
sustain life is nearing the threshold at which all ecosystems collapse.
b. Deforestation, drilling for oil, and other means of exploiting the
environment for natural resources destroy the biophysical foundation
of ecosystems, bringing the earth closer to total environmental
collapse, and are all necessary component to maintaining efficient US
World-empire.
3. (Optional Implication for more conservative debate judge) An historical
example of this irreversible destruction is Vietnam
a. According to the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, landmines
still cover Vietnam today. Over 6.3 million acres are still covered in
explosives. Since the end of the war in 1975, the mines have resulted
in over 42,000 deaths. This is the legacy of US imperialism death and
suffering of others, for the sake of empire and security.
b. Agent Orange still poisons Vietnamese land - in 2003, surveys of
Vietnamese land showed that levels of the chemical TCCD, one of the
most poisonous chemicals known to man and contained in Agent
Orange, are still at 150 million times safe levels in Vietnamese soil,
causing birth defects and suffering.

Tarrant County College Speech and Debate Team

Imperialist Domination is the root cause of all war and violence

(turns case)
1. World powers fight to gain the world as a domain for self-benefit. WorldEmpire is built primarily upon conquest, and maintained by force. This
creates conflicts over control of territory, or a struggle for empire.
2. This struggle for empire has been the core of all conflicts of the 20 th and 21st
centuries the struggle between Russia and the US, for example, was built
primarily upon fighting over control of resources to achieve the stronger
economy and military.
a. This imperialist competition, fighting over land for resources, is what
ushered in the atomic age the search for a better weapon to threaten
and destroy the opposition with resulted in the creation of the nuclear
weapon - the end-all and be-all of ways for imperialism to carry out
violence.
b. The only way to solve the looming threat nuclear weapons pose is
disarmament disarmament can only be achieved through ending the
imperial power struggle. Otherwise, nuclear war is the inevitable end
to the struggle for empire.
c. The only way to change the course of the struggle for empire is
examination of epistemologies underlying empire, otherwise the
problem will never be recognized and will bring us to extinction.

Tarrant County College Speech and Debate Team

Alternative
Vote neg to interrogate the epistemological framework of the
1AC
1. By voting negative, you accept our critique of US imperialist thought and
incentivize the questioning of assumptions in debate.
a. The affirmative teams advocacy exists only in their imagination. By
questioning the assumptions that theyve brought into the round, we
create actual education and we break down their flawed epistemology.
b. Cross-apply the arguments we made in our framework, that we solve
for real world decisions in the future by rejecting the assumptions
made in the 1AC.

Tarrant County College Speech and Debate Team

Alt Solvency
Breaking down the boundaries of knowledge is key to
counteracting otherwise inevitable imperialist violence