I’ve known I-RED for years, and have held members of their leadership in high regard.
The association and cooperation between the Intaki Liberation Front and I-RED has ebbed and flowed over time, but I believe there has always been an underlying mutual respect between us.
But the demands laid out in the opening declaration here are absolutely ridiculous.
Surely there can’t have been any real expectation that anybody outside the State Protectorate bubble would be anything but dismissive of these intended controls.
I see why Executor Hinkelmann ensured it was Commander Suzaku who acted as the public face of this initiative and not himself, even if he has still allowed his name to be associated with them. I’d be embarrassed too.
As such, I had simply disregarded these ‘ordinances’ for what they are, and had no intention of responding at all.
But others are unable to do the same, and with a tedious innevitability they have reached for the usual talking point by which the latest argument shall be won.
And so here I am.
Firstly, the Intaki Prosperity Initiative will be ignoring all of the limitations listed, as they will directly impede our long running efforts to boost trade and industry in and around the Intaki system, and we’ll take no instruction from militia organisations, regardless of who they fight for, on where we can and cannot operate within our own ancestral home system.
Secondly, both sides are wrong in their assertions that only their opponents are to blame for the situation in Placid.
There is no denying that in the years since Heth’s original invasion of Placid the region, and Intaki in particular, has suffered loss and violence at the hands of agents of the State. Members of the State militia would do well to acknowledge this.
But equally, it is the Gallente Federation that rendered Intaki impotent and unable to effectively defend itself in the first place, primarily through the often-lauded Yiona reforms, but also to this day with regards to the system security franchise. It is the same Federation that has repeatedly failed to accept responsibility for Intaki’s vulnerability as a result.
It is unfortunate that there are those within Federal militia who refuse to accept the fact that it is only because of our continued membership of a Federation that has actively made us weaker, that we are a valid target for the State at all.