Have you changed any of your positions after posting here?

Yes, but not necessarily because of Debate Politics.

Fiddytree said:

Not really. If my mind changes after I post something, it is more than likely because of outside research or thinking from historical writings, be they secondary sources or primary.

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Thats how I am too. I don't really consider many people here to be authoritative on much of anything, but I have changed my mind based on my own independant study and analysis.

Part of it is that very few of us in the world spend time researching empirically how one policy is working or not working. It is trying and difficult work, and I certainly admire those who can. I am not there yet, and perhaps will not be.

While I believe that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were originally intended to be constitutional by the members of Congress who voted to authorize force, and while I still believe that withdrawal in 2007 when the war was at it's most unpopular would have been detrimental to peace and the protection of the United States, I no longer believe that Congress' actions leading up to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars constituted a constitutional declaration of war. This is something I believe both parties have a responsibility even now to fix. Congress must no longer vote to authorize the use of force without making a congressional declaration of war.

I wouldn't say that I have changed my positions, but rather I have come in contact with other people's positions that, while I do not agree with them, I can understand where they are coming from.