BillJ wrote:
Robert Maxwell wrote:
Self-determination and sovereignty are some of the most important Western values there are, values which the Federation also appears to hold as sacred. Given that, being willing to violate those principles for the sake of acquiring some dubious medical technology puts in doubt how much the Federation actually values those supposed rights.
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If sovereignty and self-determination were ever that important to the Federation, they wouldn't be pulling planets out from under their own people and using them as bargaining chips. Like seen in Journey's End.
But the Federation government still has to do what's best for the bulk of the Federation population in any given matter. |
Given that it was the result of negotiation to end a lengthy, costly, bloody war, it's pretty obvious the Federation considered it a worthy trade to swap some planets with the Cardassians. Displacing Federation citizens was hardly ideal, but when the alternative was continued bloody conflict, it makes sense that you start sacrificing
land in order to save lives.
In any case, the Federation wound up letting the colonists remain, with the understanding that they would no longer be under Federation jurisdiction--again, this was a decision they were allowed to make, albeit only because they pushed back against the Federation bureaucracy.