My point was, with the current situation, the Imperial Navy can do nothing except grr and swing at anchor, because starships are ill-suited to pacifying rioting slaves on planets you wish to keep. Meanwhile the Imperial Army is tied up on suppression campaigns.
But should the Republic do something in an official capacity, then suddenly the Imperial Navy has something to do - reprisal raids on Republic space infrastructure, commerce raiding against Republic shipping & their space economy, for example. And the Imperial Army would then be under pressure to end things on the ground quickly, such that offensive ground actions could be undertaken against Republic worlds.
So the Republic should officially do nothing.
Well, nothing except for condemning those obviously rogue elements who understandably but unsanctionedly are prolonging the planetside insurgencies. Typing slave, is unsanctionedly a word ? Not in the thesaurus you say ? Well, put it in anyway. Weāll create a new word.
Tighten sanctions. Open up trade with the State as much as possible. Use political pressure directly and through CONCORD to make slavery an economic anchor, dragging the Empire down. And buy more bullets.
Wouldnāt hurt to exploit this chaos for our gain. Not in some dramatic āletās just blow their planets upā nonsense but I imagine the worlds dealing with this are ripe targets for liberation moves and such to reclaim our bound brothers and sisters.
There are ways to twist the knife without going full war.
Considering where the worlds in question are (in at least 2 cases, 3 jumps out of Amarr itself), there isnāt much room for āliberation movesā short of full war.
In a similar spirit, the Matari could let go of ties to distant relatives in the Empire and focus on seeing to the needs of those who are already free.
But Iām not sure either of these ideas is good for much but scoring points.
The thing is, I actually think your Republicās current stance is a pretty good one for you. Pressureās kept up, little victories are won here and there, strategies get adjusted to account for events, long games get played by all sides, and history gets made without going and exploding it all.
This seems to be an unpopular idea over there, but, I also canāt help but notice that House Sarumās mighty popular among capsuleers over here. Maybe weāre not sophisticated analysts for policy. Maybe weāre basically a bunch of hammers seeing the whole world as a forest of nails to pound in.
Maybe our national leaders would be fools to listen to us.
Patience is hard and unsatisfying. That doesnāt make it a mistake.
Itās not clear to me that youāre actually losing, though, Else. It might be pretty easy to feel like youāre losing when what youāre actually doing is getting frustrated.
Of course if you accept Miz and Arrendisās suicidally moralistic argument that the Empireās a pit of utter atrocity that must be ended at once and at all cost, you really do lose, every day. Miz doesnāt claim to be much of a strategist, though. (I wonāt say the same of Arrendis, but Iām also not sure she fully believes her own rhetoric.)
Whatās it they say about brilliant tactics with no strategy? āThe slowest way to lose?ā
This isnāt a conflict thatāll be helped a lot by getting highly tactical and crying āFOR THE FUTURE!ā while losing track of any realistic path for getting there.
Oooph, so close and yet swing and a miss. You are perfectly well aware that the argument is not that the Empire must end. Itās that it must be changed, and that isnāt going to happen from within, when everything within it is designed to maintain the status quo at absolutely all cost to the point of including the rest of the universe in it.
That it is a pit of utter atrocity is not in question though. That is inescapable fact. Literal trillions held as slaves, woman. You are not so deficient that you can honestly argue that isnāt an atrocity.
Or maybeā¦ and I know this is crazy talkā¦ weāre human beings, and we have different strengths and weaknesses, instead of being some kind of homogenized paste you spread on the inside of a pod. Some of us are better as hammers, some of us are actually better as analysts.
Iāve never claimed the Empire must be ended at all cost. Iāve said that there is no scenario where theyāre not an existential threat to literally everyone else, so long as their divine mandate exists. Iāve said theyāre corrupt to the core, and evil. Iāve said it would be good if what they are now were utterly destroyed. Iāve even said that at times it feels like itād be preferable to just start the damned war already. But āat all costā is an extremely broad set of carte blanche to issue.
Which is kinda why Iāve not only said that there isnāt much room for āliberationā in Thebeka and Alkabsi short of full-on war, but also that the Republic shouldnāt use this as a pretext for war, in this very thread where youāre presenting me as having some other position.
The Militia wars are, essentially, a war of attrition. Resources are used in it, by capsuleers in space, and by groundside too when extended space control makes it possible, to āwinā systems and to establish control of the warzone.
In a war of attrition, even if both sides lose equally, the smaller side loses more relative to what they have. The power balance shifts, slowly but certainly. And the Republic is much, much smaller than the Empire.
Like Arrendis and Miz, I am not saying āwe must fight at any costā. But as things stand, we will have to fight, some time. And every day we stay in the status quo makes us less likely to win in the end.
So let it burn. Because it will burn, and the later it starts, the worse it will be.
Maybe. But Iām not sure I trust my own insight as to the way forward not to get larded with stuff Iād kind of like to do anyway. Thereās some stuff that keeps popping up in my head I kind of have to keep squashing.
Maybe thatās just me.
Fair enough. It can be hard not to see your position and Mizās as ā¦
ā¦ hard to distinguish. Especially since you seem perfectly happy to accept ā¦
ā¦ Iāll concede thereās a little daylight between you and that poor fool, though.
Just, eventually all the demonization starts feeling kind of samey, you know?
Whether thatās significant, though, depends on a lot of other factors, including whether the two sides do in fact lose equally and also how significant the losses are relative to the full pools of resources available.
To me it seems like your long-term strategic issues have less to do with the pendulum war and more to do with relative spending on military versus infrastructure. Isnāt your current leader kind of famously hawkish regarding the Empire? I wonder if thatās whatās kept Malaetu Shakor from following through in the ways you seem to badly want him to.
Iād expect such a person to have a more thorough understanding of the realities in play than we can get. And apparently whatever those realities are have given him cause for caution.
He doesnāt have any power anymore. Converting the Republic into a tribal nation was one of his big goals, but that goal entailed him losing all political power he had. Anything that will happen, will be by the decision of the chiefs on the tribal council.
Like what? You never know, you might have something in there with potential.
The Sanmatarās executive power is limited to more or less representing the decisions of the Tribal Council, and being one of the people who can talk to them directly. He could take the reins of central power again in an emergency, but doing so, as I understand it, triggers either an immediate vote of no-confidence or flat out removes him from the position after a set interval. I forget which.
I try not to put trying to be a decent person in tension with keeping promises and not making idle threats, Arrendis. Revenge is cyclical. If Iām my best self, Iāll be one who breaks the cycle, not just another turn of the wheel.