Hibbah Ali
January 29, 2014
History 4
Isolationist vs Internationalist Debate
Opening Statement:
America should not be involved in World War Two in any way. The First World War had devastating implications on our country and it would be unwise to go through that again. Many lives were lost and a great deal of money went to aiding other countries. After America helped Great Britain in World War One, we were bombed by Germany. This should be evidence that the United States should not assist Britain again or we run the risk of getting attacked. It is more beneficial for our economy and safer for our people to distance ourselves as much as possible from World War Two.

Argument:
In ww1 we were bombed by Germany when helping Great Britain. In the bombing of Lusitania 1,198 were killed and 128 of those passengers were Americans. We don't need a repeat of what happened. George Washington said that we should “avoid entangling alliances” and that “The Great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little as possible.” Also after ww1, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was written to mesh the idea of non-intervention with that of the post-Versailles desire to end all wars. This shows that they didn't want to fight anymore and wanted what was best for everyone. Also the Special Committee thought “the intense competition among European and American munitions companies… tends to create a corrupt officialdom, and thereby weaken the remaining democracies of the world…” This would not be only hurting us but other countries as well. The Special Committee also found that by giving munition “there is a considerable threat to the peace and the civic progress of other nations” and that even if good sales were produced, the “effect of such sales is to produce fear and hostility… culminating in economic strain and collapse or war.”

Rebuttal:
"The security of America depends on supporting/joining the war"
This is not a fact, we are nowhere close in proximity to the conflict and there has not been any sign of an imminent threat towards our country from those engaged in the war since we have not been involved. What is a fact however, is that if our country does not remain neutral in this war, lives will definitely be lost no matter what. Though we still may be