Starfleet is a Space Navy (military fleet)

Picard (in Insurrection): "Can anyone remember when we used to be explorers?"

The movie Insurrection show us a few days of the ship's activities six months prior to the end of the Dominion War, what the Enterprise was doing over the course of the war is unknown.

Also, the Enterprise D wasn't Starfleet's flagship, the Enterprise D was the flagship of the Federation. Not the same thing.

The Federation needs a military to fight it's never ending series of wars.

As previously covered, Costa Rica does have a (admittedly small) military, they just don't refer to it using the term military.

Costa Rica's military are "special intervention units," the way Japan's military are "special civil servants."

 

Actually, yes, it does. ("Take Me Out to the Holosuite")

Indeed. We have seen Starfleet fight wars (the Klingons, the Cardassians, the Dominion, even the Borg). Only a military can fight a war. Draw your own conclusions...

 

... eventually.

But then, on a long enough timeline, EVERY state ceases to exist eventually.

And again, there is lots of precedent in the Star Trek universe for planets that get by just fine with no military at all. The higher your level of technology, the less you need a standing army to defend yourself.

Honestly: why would you even need something called a "military" when you have a giant 600 exawwatt gravity cannon that can pretty much vaporize anything in orbit at the touch of a button? The guy who pushes the button could just as easily be a janitor. That's not even a military, that's just a giant mousetrap.

 

What makes you think that's the Federation's anthem and not, say, United Earth or Vulcan's?

 

Speaking of states that at one point or another didn't have a military...

 

Because both Earth and Vulcan are members of the Federation.

 

I argued that the Fed doesn't have currency on another recent thread here, and lost. The Federation does have some sort of currency. As for this debate, I don't understand how it is one. It seems many nayers on here have a very narrow definition of military, and to them, it comes loaded with some sort of negative connotation.

I say we change this thread to listing all of the things we see and hear in Trek that are "like" a military. Remember now! Don't draw conclusions. I'll start.

"Enlisted"
"COMMISSIONED Officer"
"Cadet"
"Tribunal"
"Cochrane Medal of Valor with oak leaf cluster"
"Court MARTIAL"
"Commanding Officer"
"Chief Medical Officer"
"Duty Roster"
"Mess Hall"
"Chief O'Brien was a soldier"
"Weapons Officer"
"Patrol the Neutral Zone"
"Patrol the border of the Demilitarized Zone"
-oh, there's one. SF wasn't allowed in that place.
"Defend the Federation"
"Starfighters"
"A navy tradition"
"you'll get to stay in the service"

Okay, I took some of the good ones. Someone else can have a go at it. Remember. These are just borrowed terms of bygone era. Don't be deceived.

 

Honest question: When a British team plays soccer in Canada, whose national anthem do they play?

 

NOAA and the Department of Public Health both have commissioned officer corps. Are those nerds military, too?

The Salvation Army literally has the word "Army" in their name. Are they a military, too?

The clothing retailer Old Navy literally has the word "Navy" in their name. Do they have aircraft carriers?

 

^ Once they start being called upon to fight wars (as we have seen Starfleet do), then come back here and argue that point.

 

What some people are essentially saying is that one needs a special dictionary that rejects the existing dictionaries, just to properly watch Star Trek because you see, JAG and court-martial don't really mean what you've learned in real life. Let me pause the film while I flip through the special included reference book: Ah, much better now! So, let's see . . . scientific paramilitary ships armed with energy weapons, torpedoes and banned weapons—gotcha!

 

No, but they have variously been described as paramilitary for exactly that reason.

Neither do I, really. They say they're not a military, but they act like one. The word for that is "paramilitary."

And that bothers you WHY?

 

Not unlike MOST of the terms that are being used in Star Trek.

For example:

Captain's Log, stardate 2821.5. On route to Makus Three with a cargo of medical supplies. Our course leads us past Murasaki 312, a quasar-like formation​

Literally NOTHING about the object they explored in "Galileo Seven" was even remotely "quasar like," not least of which because it was actually within the milky way galaxy, which actual quasars CANNOT EVER be.

Star Trek gets a breathtaking amount of things wrong in terms of its scientific background. Its use of military-like terms in a non-military context shouldn't be all that surprising either.

Yes.

There. Was that so hard?

 

That's the second time you've attempted to "turn the table." From your passionate arguments, you've made it clear that the term "military" bothers you to no insignificant degree. All the while insisting on the term "paramilitary." A word already filled with negative connotation, and not at all fitting to an organization like Starfleet, military or otherwise.

ATTENTION THREAD - ATTENTION THREAD
Godwin's Law...has been satisfied.
Carry on..

 

Why do you assume that the term "paramilitary" has an inherently negative connotation to it?

 

The opening title sequence of Star Trek Enterprise:

The space-related footage is made up of almost entirely the U.S. (NASA) space program. Considering the known space program, why is the sequence noticeably missing the following?

• Sputnik—the first artificial Earth satellite, launched into space by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957.
  
  
  
  
• Yuri Gagarin—a Soviet Russian cosmonaut and the first human in space on April 12, 1961.
  
  
  
  
• Valentina Tereshkova—a Soviet Russian cosmonaut and the first woman in space on June 16, 1963.
  
  
  
  
• Alexei Leonov—a Soviet Russian cosmonaut and the first human to conduct the EVA space walk on March 18, 1965.
  
  
  
  
• Soyuz—a Soviet and, subsequently, Russian spacecraft, which the manned space flight to the ISS is dependant on today. That includes US astronauts.
  
  

Next, why would a fourth grade student from Ireland send this drawing to the Enterprise, as seen in the ENT: "Breaking the Ice"?

​

Note the "USA" patch on the space suit.

Memory Alpha: Haley (student)

Haley was a Human child from Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland on Earth. She attended Miss Malvin's fourth grade class at the Worley Elementary School in 2151.

That year, Haley sent a drawing to the crew of Enterprise NX-01, which was dubbed as "First Contact". (ENT: "Breaking the Ice")​

Isn't Star Trek supposed to be about humanity and not USA exclusively? It couldn't possibly have ulterior motives, could it?

 

By that logic, everyone on Star Trek should speak either Mandarin or Spanish, rather than English.

 

Even if we entertain the notion that Starfleet is more into exploration, why does this mean they can't be military? In the past, exploration was done by the military, and even today NASA employs a large number of active duty military officers, among them Chris Hadfield, arguably the most famous astronaut of the past decade.

The Salvation Army does indeed model itself after the military.

 

I could pose the same question, just ever so slightly altered.

Why does this mean that they MUST be military?

 

This is why Chekov was always overcompensating and attributing every major human achievement to Mother Russia. The guy was feeling a little disenfranchised among all those Americans. I don't blame him. There was even a time where Kirk was like "No Chekov! You're wrong!" ...jerk
(not you. I mean Kirk...Kirk is the jerk)