Well said in general, but this was the most well said of it all. The Caldari State has grown into the powerhouse it is today through the hard work, sense of duty and patriotism of its citizens, not empty jingoism and dwelling on old hatreds. No matter the mistakes or missteps made along the way, the Caldari have always found a way to rebound, endure and prosper. Let this perseverance remain that way, and serve as an inspiration to us all.
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And that, Ms. Phyre, was my intent.
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I brought a starcake. 
And some other cake. 
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We are at fault.
We allowed greed, pride and fear to blind the Federation to its own founding principles. We made enemies of those who should’ve been friends, and all for the approval of those who were all too happy to wage wars but never to fight in them. There’s a gulf between our peoples, and in it are able to thrive all manner of ugly and terrible things that could never find purchase if the Federation had been as tolerant as it claims to be. We can look to the Caldari and say, “well, you should’ve done this,” but even when it’s true, saying it helps nothing. Are there things about you that need to change? Perhaps. Are there things about us that need to change? Definitely.
We’ll never change the Caldari, and we should never have tried. That was wrong of us. That is something for the Caldari to do for oyurselves. And without any malice or bitterness, I truly do wish you the best of luck with changing whatever you feel needs to change about yourselves.
The Federation was a dream of good government. We haven’t achieved it yet. We should, though. Maybe it’s not too late.
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There’s a reason we snuffed out the U-Nats and one of those reasons was guilt and fault.
Maybe. There’s some promise. I still have a few inklings of hope for it.
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So besides a few empty platitudes expressed in public which are nice and all, is anything substantial actually offered beyond that? The ultranationalist strain remains alive and well in the Federation and finds itself expressed in the election of leaders such as Mentas Blaque whose record on foreign policy has long involved sabre rattling directed towards the State and advocating expansions of the Federal military budget under a nationalist, nativist, and populist agenda framed under the auspices of new euphemisms describing nothing more than the same old doctrines of Gallente supremacy is not something that can be readily ignored.
When such a politician campaigns on what is essentially a platform reminiscent of Luc Duvailer, and that man manages to almost become President of the Federation carrying a significant portion of the popular vote then to say the people of the Federation have abandoned intolerance and militarism as their preferred method of interaction with Caldari is remarkably disingenuous.
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The Mannar are probably some of the worst people you’ll ever meet in this regard, probably ever. The U-Nats are out of office, however. Pres Yiona and the senate that served under her burned that wick to ash after they pushed out the Hueromont Reforms to try to restrain the Federation from its absurd overreach and Hey Let’s Just Help Everyone By Letting Them Know* (Read: Tell Them) How to Best Live Their Lives tendencies. I’m not sure if that’s the official phrase for it, by the way, but I’m sticking with it. The U-Nats were scorned for their crimes against humanity against the Caldari peoples, and not only that, but their treatment of Federal member-states in the process.
Blaque isn’t an ultranationalist. I would argue he’s got some nationalist tendencies about him, but less structurally, and more culturally. The U-Nats thought that the Federation was the greatest good anyone could ever get; Blaque is a bit of a turd and thinks that identifying as Ethnic Gallente to be the greatest good. Not so much the genetics, but the identity, period. Blaque advocates for wiser foreign policy universally in the Federation. I’ll find the quote or whatever later, but he’s even said that the Republic doesn’t need more of the Fed’s “generosity” but instead, more of its thoughtfulness.
Most of Mentas’ fans come from more Hawks than not. A lot of the core worlds really really really do not like him. If you want to point fingers, Veik, then point at the Mannar. Point at the Jin-Mei. Point to Solitude. If I wanted to point fingers, I’d do the same - right to the Patriot bloc.
I think it’s a bit hypocritical for a war profiteer to criticize war profiteers for war profiteering, anyway.
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“I’m not a Gallente ultranationist just a Gallente nationalist.” and;
“I don’t believe in the ethnic supremacy of the Gallente just the cultural supremacy of the Gallente.”
Are as I have already pointed out:
It doesn’t matter if a lot of the core worlds don’t like the man, that ignores that his platform and anti-State rhetoric was responded to by a significant portion of the voter base within the Federation – up to 60% in some districts looking at past poll numbers for Blaque do support a foreign policy aimed at military confrontation with the State.
If military confrontation is the primary foreign policy agenda of the Federation as regards the State then all the public platitudes in the cluster of, “Would it not be nice if we could all just be friends,” won’t convince a bloc like the Patriots from pursuing its own arms race responding to the perceived antagonism and threat of containment from the Federation.
The cycle of action and reaction was established long ago and it continues for good reason on both sides. Politicians like Blaque see the State as a threat to the Federation; and corporate leaders in the Patriots have always seen the Federation as a threat to sovereign interests.
The opinions of ultranationalists and Gallente supremacists such as Blaque remains a powerful current in Federal politics; and the Patriots are the singular largest bloc within the State equal in military strength and industrial output than both Liberals and Practicals combined. Expecting either to back down given their interests and political perceptions on the basis of a few empty platitudes in public is a fever dream of expectations.
Because sure, a lot of things would be nice and wonderful if only we could wish it enough to be so; but the impetus of domestic politics and the interplay of historic antagonism with present day competing interests cares not for individual desire.
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Yeah, yeah Feds bad, Caldari oppressed good peeps. We get it.
Can we just move on now?
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No we can’t, 'Bella. Not so long as disarmament equals suicide for the Caldari.
Say what you like about us, we’re violent because we’ve been struck, and there’s really been no evidence that the Gallente have given up the idea of forcefully repatriating us the moment that we couldn’t stop them.
I’m not a sophisticated politico, like Veikitamo, and I don’t go in for cat-stroking or moustache twirling - but the two of us agree on the fundamental principle that it is only Caldari Arms that guarantee Caldari Freedoms. The moment that changes is the moment I’ll reconsider my position on the dangers posed by Gallente bearing gifts.
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So you’re basically asking the Federation to accept a hostile, heavily militarized neighbor in the very heart of their space and take your word that you wouldn’t attack Luminaire, the surrounding systems or expand your influence beyond Caldari Prime?
No sane Federal government would ever accept that.
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To elaborate a bit on my earlier points.
Having fought one all out war, I would prefer not to experience having to fight another, nor would I desire to expose my fellow citizens to the kind of cruelty, savagery, and pain that I and my comrades of which many I lost had to endure.
I don’t want people to be forced to drink themselves drunk into a stupor because every night they’re chased by the dreams of dogs they had to kill before a raid on a small town.
I don’t want someone to be told to drive an APC down to the spaceport full of body bags of the dead for transport, and wondering to themselves as they wash all the blood out after loading if that’s all you are, just meat and when it’s going to be your turn and someone else is washing your blood off a floor.
Or wanting to gag everytime you smell cooked meat because you can’t forget the stench of human flesh burning after calling an incendiary strike on an enemy position.
All my memories of war are endless days and nights of a life I would rather forget; of a life less lived but forced to endure of fear; of physical privations; and emotional deprivation of the spirit. Whose personal legacy remains a difficult one both to live with and to reconcile, leaving precious little feelings of either heroism or glory when one remembers what was lost and what had to be left behind.
Such memories do not instill in me any sense of ardour or joy at the prospect of the ruthless and calculated annhilation that is the modern interstellar war. While my life has left me at times embittered and perhaps even a bit disillusioned in my old age, it has not left me so cynical as to gladly advocate the destruction of the youth of my nation for the empty promise of military glory only to die in duty’s ditch.
The prospect of having to again fight that kind of war again, when it is I who was the youth of my nation leaves me feeling nothing more than a sense of dread, and of apprehension; not so much as for myself but for everyone else it will involve and the price they will have to pay. Condemning them to suffering they would otherwise not have to endure, if only…
If only, what? I honestly do not know. Because at times in the conduct of analysis I must be able to divorce my own personal ideology, opinions and desires from the facts as I see them. The escalated arms race begun in YC 110 continues apace, to such an extent that this year saw the outsourcing to capsuleers of mineral supply just to keep up with the demands of construction. There exist very few opportunities to disabuse old suspicions and historical mistrust for the common citizen – precious few from the State will meet those from the Federation, and vice versa, to at least be able to put a human face to the prejudiced views of the enemy from the past.
More critically, and more importantly, the Hawks – military and economic – both in the Federation and in the State have been on the ascendant,with the desire for further confrontation on the increase according to their divergent political and cultural narratives. Perversely, those narratives directly feed into and inflame each other further – for in their expression, they also conform to the negative propaganda of the other side they are directed against. In a grand display of confirmation bias the Gallente and the Caldari nationalist can tell themselves, “They’re just as horrible and evil as I said they were.”
The prelude to war is an act in which the participants consider themselves justified and in the right. War remains the final recourse when the participants involved in a conflict have resolved that there can be no resolution on what they deem their core interests, beliefs and ideology. That if negotiation is the process of compromise and having to accept less than what was desired, then war is the process of being uncompromising and accepting no less than what is desired. If there is no ability to compromise on matters of security nor to discuss on the basis of opposing narrative and perspective, then unfortunately that leaves only war as the sole compelling option to pursue what is deemed to be the national interest.
As a capsuleer I am divorced from the domestic politics underlying both the State and the Federation. Even as I can see when such politics and divergent interests are slowly leading to a future military confrontation in a period where increasing tensions will lead to the instabilities that require only a single flashpoint to ignite the conflagrations of armed conflict to its fullest extent. I remain but one woman forced to watch the impetus towards a future war carried forth by the actions of trillions, and I know not what if anything can be done to hold back that tide.
I came here seeking something in my own interest, that others professed peace as I also desire, and while I am willing to admit to not knowing how such may be pursued I had hoped that if others professed such they might also have substantive ideas on how to accomplish such a goal.
It would appear that if even an exploration of the issues at play is impossible due to the overwhelming desire to play the blame game instead, then one can only accept that a future war must be accepted as a foregone conclusion – as unappealing as such an outcome will prove to be.
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The Federation is asking us to give up our Homeworld and dismantle the State before reporting for payment of reparations and Citizenship. No sane people would accept that.
*I should add that this is only the counterveiling opinion to Anabella’s. I am well aware that ‘The Federation’ doesn’t exist and holds no opinions, because it is a loose polity and not an individual with it’s own desires and thoughts.
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Qí military march celebrating state secession day
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What? Who’s asking you to give up the planet and dismantle the State? Explain this to me please because as someone who was raised on Luminaire I never heard anyone advocating such a thing.
I guess Pilot Gesakaarin is correct. Under the current climate there don’t seem to be any avenues for lasting peace in the cluster. We appear to be doomed to a perpetual cold war and indefinite extension of the status quo until something happens to turn the cold war into an all out Armageddon.
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I can only speak upon prevalent attitudes within Kaalakiota; but the Federation has always been regarded as a very unreliable negotiating partner given its political dynamics. For every Arlette Villiers or Suoro Foiritain there is a Harner, Blaque, and Duvailer. It almost goes like clockwork: One Administration seeks rapprochement and the signing of new deals aimed at de-escalating tensions only for them to be replaced by a new more bellicose Administration that will seek to overturn all the progress made in State-Fed relations.
It is not a question of whether not the State as a whole is willing or able to pursue talks with the Federation – it is – it remains an open question as to whether or not the deals struck with one Administration will continue to be upheld in good faith by the ones that come after. The State could, for example, sign into an Arms Limitation treaty with the Federation with the intent of reducing tensions, just as much as it could withdraw Fleet Elements from the Federal border. However, and this is the fear: what happens if the Federation elects as leaders people like Duvailer, Harner, or Blaque?
Suddenly the State is left with a reduced military capability and lack of rapid response elements on the border to adequately respond to any attack by the Federation. The heavy militarization of Kaalakiota and the wider State is intended both to deter attack and to be used as a negotiating tool and adjunct to foreign policy – and there remains no more important foreign policy than to ensure the safety and prosperity of the State and its citizens.
The fundamental issue for the State in general in its relationship with the Federation is not a matter of ideology (there is no desire to spread Caldari values abroad); neither is it entirely about the Homeworld (a potent symbol but its value remains when compared to the rest of the State still symbolic); but rather a question of security and uncertainty of Federal motives given its governance. The core concern is that the people of the Federation will decide to re-elect a man like Harner as President who will seek, as said before the launch of Operation Forward Dawn to, “Bring the Caldari back into the fold,” through the use of force.
The demand that the only path to peace is for the State to limit itself in the construction of arms and in the build-up of its military is unfortunately a demand that cannot be met at present insofar as there can be no assurance that the deterrence to attack they provide against a Federal offensive is no longer necessary.
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We need to build a wall. Space war now.
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