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The opposing case and the answers to it — the half of prep most people skip.
Opposition & Rebuttal
Info
Opposing View: Summarize it fairly in 1–2 sentences.
Rebuttal: Clear counter backed by reasoning or example.
- Opposing View (Colonialism/Empire): U.S. (and the West) enriched itself through colonial extraction, coups, and unequal trade; therefore, its claimed “benefits” are inseparable from coercion and lasting harm. (On coups: Iran 1953; Guatemala 1954; Chile 1973. Casualties in post-9/11 wars are vast.)
Citations: Iran 1953 (https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/events/iran-mosaddeq-overthrow-1953 ; https://apnews.com/article/218323db3cc1aca6bde1e54827527e8d) ; Guatemala 1954 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54Guat/sources ; https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/) ; Chile 1973 (https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/subjects/human-rights-genocide?page=26) ; Post-9/11 tolls (https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/human).
Rebuttal: The moral ledger is mixed and requires frank acknowledgment—but the same century also shows U.S.-backed public health (smallpox eradication), development finance, trade openness, and peacekeeping that produced net, measurable global gains in survival and prosperity. The corrective is not to deny harms, but to compare systems and outcomes and to press uniquely American self-correction: open media, courts, elections, congressional inquiries, declassification, and policy reversals (e.g., PEPFAR’s bipartisan renewals). (https://www.state.gov/pepfar ; https://www.cdc.gov/museum/online/story-of-cdc/smallpox/index.html) - Opposing View (“innovation was global anyway”): Many breakthroughs came from multiple countries; the U.S. simply commercialized or scaled them.
Rebuttal: Exactly—and scaling is the life-saver. U.S. state capacity (DARPA/NSF/NIH) + market depth + universities turned prototypes into ubiquitous systems (Internet, GPS, mRNA platforms) that every nation now relies on. (https://www.darpa.mil/news/features/arpanet ; https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf25327/ ; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9975718/) - Opposing View (Aid/self-interest): U.S. aid serves geopolitical aims and sometimes causes dependency or collateral damage.
Rebuttal: Motives can be mixed and still yield enormous health returns—the test is outcomes. PEPFAR’s 25M+ lives saved and vaccine campaigns are hard-to-fake counterfactuals with rigorous monitoring. The right reform is “smarter aid,” not cynicism that withholds nets, ARVs, or shots. (https://www.state.gov/pepfar-latest-global-results-factsheet-dec-2024 ; https://www.cdc.gov/museum/online/story-of-cdc/smallpox/index.html) - Counter-counter on colonialism debates: Scholars like Nigel Biggar argue empire’s record is morally variegated—containing both oppression and public goods—and should be assessed case-by-case rather than as total condemnation. Agree or not, this underscores the need for granular, comparative evaluation rather than slogans. (https://quillette.com/2023/02/06/colonialism-and-its-discontents/ ; https://nigelbiggar.uk/2024/06/20/nigel-discusses-colonialism-on-the-ill-literacy-podcast/)