The thing is this, everything about Kaalakiota from the weapons it designs to its internal culture, to its foreign policy reflects a simple philosophy: If you desire peace; prepare for war. Is a weapon system like the Stahl Rail Rifles the best suited to platoon level engagements like Dust troops engaged in? Not really, no. It is however, a fantastic weapon for conventional war.
This is because the 2mm ferrous ammunition is cheap and easy to manufacture, easy to supply, and easy to carry a whole lot of in the field. The 0.25s delay and automatic fire only is less of a concern in a full-scale conventional conflict because current doctrines don’t emphasize precision, they emphasize sheer volume of fire to suppress enemy positions to outflank them with maneuver elements.
It is a maxim of history, that in periods of relative peace it becomes in vogue to reduce the military, to convince oneself that we can all be friends, we can all be nice to each other, and surely there is no need for all the construction of weapons that can be resources better placed elsewhere. It is an equal maxim of history that societies that do so only set themselves up for a fall in their misguided belief of some better nature existing in man. Just look at the lessons of the Minmatar who pursued peace at any cost thinking that resulted in nothing more than the destruction of their society and their enslavement for centuries.
That “Peace at any cost” thinking and the dangerous lack of foresight inherent in it, remains the crux of ire at the politics of the Liberals within the State, among many within Kaalakiota. When the Caldari people already have their own lessons to draw from such thinking. There was a time when, prior to the formation of the State, people espoused much the same thinking – that Caldari could live in peace with the Federation, that they would accept the principles of self-determination, independence, and the autonomy of a separate polity.
What was the price of such thinking? A homeworld bombed and forced to fight a war with converted civilian craft for decades because surely according to such people as existed then and exist now in Ishukone we should trust in the better nature of others at great cost to ourselves.
Never again, I say.
Never again to trust the delusional who believe the words of those who would seek to disguise malice behind the cloak of noble intentions.
People can say what they want of Kaalakiota, that it is bellicose, its people arrogant or imperious, stubborn, recalcitrant, hawkish, or xenophobic, but at the end of the day it matters little what people say or think so long as peace and prosperity remains secured through force of arms.