> Why is everyone so cynical all the time?
Matthew,
I think you are seeing the issue as Black and White while I see it as Shades
of Gray. For me, most Governments, Groups, and Organizations are neither
"Good" or "Evil". These labels are so very subjective as to be useless. Do I
think there are organizations that start out with good intentions? Sure but do
I think there will ever be a group of any kind that is pure good. No.
The UN, like many other groups, could pull out many things to "prove" how good
they are. And those who dislike the UN could site many
things to show how the UN failed or is bad/evil. The truth, for me, is
that
both would/could be presenting true facts. It is in how they see those
facts that changes things in their minds.
History is filled with people who have done things I could call Evil in the
name of some "Good" cause. Most conflicts in history are because two groups
both believed they were the "Good Guys" and thus had to
change/stop
the "Bad Guys".
Beast is right on this one. This has gone so far off topic that we must all
just "Agree to Disagree".
The UNSC provide a very good function. They protect Earth and the inner
colonies from being fought over. This incidentally provides an excellent
place to put your shipyards and training bases. Not only are they not going to
get attacked, I would imagine that the majority of the human population still
lives inside UN protected space, thus allowing a large pool of labour which
cannot be threatened.
> --- Corey Burger <burgundavia@crosswinds.net> wrote:
So basically it is a multilateral arms
control/inspection regime in which all the major
powers participate to keep their interstellar wars "limited"? Yes, that could
work, although after a protracted conflict with heavy losses and no outcome in
sight the temptation to break out of the regime in hopes of gaining some sort
of advantage might be too great. Limited wars stay limited only if they are
resolved quickly and losses are light. Otherwise they tend to expand into
every available sphere of conflict.
> great. Limited wars stay limited only if they are
Like Korea or Vietnam?
> At 12:29 PM 3/16/01 -0500, you wrote:
Yes, expanding the war into the inner colonies (including earth) may seem like
a great idea militarily, but the political consequences of such as action
would be catatrophic. Remember, Earth and the inner colonies are
likely to be very muti-ethnic and multi-national, and one stray
bomb(non-nuke) may hit one of your cities, our one of your own cities.
There are also certain to be large groups of people living in space, and
certainly working in space, so the effects of any space battle would be
equally devastating.
--- "laserlight@quixnet.net" <laserlight@quixnet.net>
wrote:
> >great. Limited wars stay limited only if they are
They were both "proxy-wars" fought for (at least on
the US side) for very limited purposes, and on top of that there was the risk
of nuclear escalation (rather than UN intervention) that made the superpowers
act more cautiously. If anything would prevent the interstellar conflicts from
spreading to Earth it is the knowledge that such expansion would also result
in a devastating nuclear exchange, rather than UNSC's good offices.
> Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 09:21:34 -0800 (PST)
I could stand such a definition BUT... how come they are technologically more
advanced? Why should warring nations let their better scientists slip through
to UN labs? Or, which is UN "home", where they can recruit or prepare their
own?... raw materials, I can understand UN can buy on the free market (even if
that mean the UN can be coerced by the supplying
countries/planets)... production could be handled in orbital factories,
out of reach of national laws and protected by the Fleet but manpower? Core
systems and Earth are "protected" not "owned" by the UN...
And, in reference to Vietnam and Korea as successfully contained limited war
(as somebody wrote), they were not so heavy to request an escalation, even if
some parties asked for it. Let's face it, Vietnam was long, but definitely a
sideshow, and Korea was a brief sideshow.
Bye