Earth-Romulan wars

[Valenti]

Maybe the Klingon civil war was based on that.

 

[johnnybear]

The Klingon assault in the interim between the series and TMP might be a thing to consider unless there was more parenting by the Organians at that time?
JB

 

[Timo]

I would need to see a couple of real world instances where someone used "a few years" to mean a century or more before I accept this statement.

Considering it's two arch-enemies speaking, a human and a Klingon, and in a context that makes the topic itself fairly absurd, I don't see this as exceptional - merely humorous. Us Finns and the Swedes did a lot of stuff with and to each other "a few years back", such as in the 30-Year War, say.

Thus it seems rather foolish to send one of the few top of the line ships in the fleet on a relatively minor scientific survey for three years in the midst of a shooting war with a major power.

To be sure, the ship was sent to snoop at gases right under the noses of this major power! Typical cold war stuff there. Although a bit more daring than anything the US or the USSR ever did, as their "under the nose" ships tended to be small ones, with the big battlewagons hiding in "fleet in being" positions. Starfleet might feel the need to show how utterly superior they are by risking the Excelsior that way.

Not that we would have any reason to think Sulu did nothing but sniff gas for three years straight; that part of his mission was so incidental to him that Valtane needed to tell to him with a PADD in hand that it had just ended, as if Sulu otherwise would not notice...

The Enterprise also has equipment for cataloging gaseous anomalies, so presumably just returned from a routine scientific survey. And maybe other ships were involved in surveying gaseous anomalies.

Ships do that a lot in times of war, too. In Trek, that is. And certainly during an "unremitting" cold war, as with Kirk's TOS mission. Heck, Sisko did it during the Dominion conflict, too.

So clearly there is already a Federation-Klingon peace treaty in force at the beginning of TUC.

Or then a state of war. The two Koreas have to obey plenty of treaty stipulations today, too, lest their hot war turn hotter.

It is my opinion that, given the nature of Klingon society, it is rather common for Klingon groups to break off and more their own independent governments. And especially after the Khitomer Conference several dissatisfied Klingon groups would have broken away from the main group seen in TNG, the Klingon Imperial Empire, and some of them could have fought wars with the Federation.

That the Klingons would even believe in a dichotomy of war vs. peace is a bit of a stretch: they may parrot the alien words when pretending to make treaties, but this need not mean they would stop raiding and conquering in peacetime unless specifically, repeatedly and forcibly told to cease.

Timo Saloniemi