No, as I said above, I would not like to see the Federation do that. My point is to the effectiveness of tactics, not their morality. Above all, the Federation should be moral - else its not an optimistic future.
I would think a good rule of thumb, as far as UFP foreign policy is concerned, would be: No nation may initiate the use of force against another. When defending itself (and its allies) against aggressors, the Federation is perfectly justified in using force (as in the Dominion War), but only then. Seems simple enough...in theory, of course. In other words, if war ever breaks out between The Khitomer Alliance and The Typhon Pact, The UFP must take great pains to ensure that the Alliance does not start the war. However...should war break out, common sense demands that the Alliance must be prepared to fight. Survival depends on it.
^ Question is: Should that fight be limited to ship-to-ship combat? And should it only be defensive? During the Dominion War it was necessary to go on the offensive to end it quickly. Should direct battle be the only means of ensuring a quick end to war? More subtle and covert attempts (such as helping Cardassian dissidents against the Dominion) can be successful in ending conflict and bringing all sides to the negotiating table.
Of course. But the war must be for the purpose of defense. Once an aggressor attacks, a nation must be willing to do (as the Constitution says) all that is Neccessary And Proper in order to defeat this enemy--through negotiation where possible, through military and covert action where neccessary. And believe me...it often is neccessary.
You like doing all the paperwork and other crap us Commodore's don't want to do. Or are you talking about either going insane or being horribly disfigured
I think the answer to most of those question would entirely depend on the direction of the war, and the actions of the Typhon Pact.
Agreed. As I've stated, I'm thinking the Pact will be trying to test the nerve of the Alliance via "torpedo drills", non-violent dogfighting (think the first scene of Top Gun), and diplomatic bullying--and perhaps, every once in a while, the starting of some border wars, a la Korea and Vietnam.... (Gee, hope I'm not taking the Cold War analogy too seriously again....)
I was simply responding to rahullak, I really don't think there will be a war. My thinking is that there might be a few little fights, but probably nothing even close to an actual war.
^ For what it's worth, I don't think there will be a war either. But its stimulating to consider other possibilities. It is fictional exploration after all.
Speaking of the Typhon Pact, and how unsure everyone is over whether it's "bad" or not.... It would be interesting if Nan Bacco would use something similar to the following as a campaign ad for a second term--with her face replacing Reagan's at the end, of course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpwdcmjBgNA&feature=related Just sayin'....
If Bacco was going to go the paranoid, fear-culling warmonger route, I think she has enough piss and vinegar in her to cut to the chase and just flood the Typhon powers with Genesis bombs, trilithium devices, planetbuster charges, and thus generally nuke and pave that whole half of the quadrant. If she was going to. I really have such a lack of patience for those who have rhetoric painting a picture of an existential threat, but whose actions show they believe it to be anything but.