The Dominion war.

[rahullak]

No, Sisko mined the wormhole to defend the Federation against the Dominion aggression of building up its massive armada in the AQ which the Dominion didn't have to do. Talk about choice: The Dominion need not have escalated matters by trying to bring almost its entire armada into the AQ. They had a choice. They deliberately chose to be aggressive and provoke war. It's what they've wanted all along, unlike the UFP which only wanted peace.

If that was the case then the Wormhole wouldn't have been mined when Sisko was offered to send in non-military vessels.

Non-military vessels? Of the Dominion? What do you think such vessels would contain? More Jem'Hadar? But wait. Jem'Hadar are soldiers. Or maybe there'd be ships full of Vorta or Founders being transported and operated only by Vorta?
C'mon, given all of their past hostile acts, there is no reason to trust the Dominion and you know it. Besides, like I said, there are no non-military vessels of the Dominion. That was just a foolish ploy by Weyoun, a pretense to try to act like he was negotiating.

True. I'm pretty sure that isn't the law of the sea on this planet, either, particularly when it comes to warships that sank within days and have demonstrably not been abandoned by their government. To the best of my knowledge, even if it were a private ship, and it had not been abandoned, all Sisko would have coming to him is a salvor's fee.

Edit: I forgot about them blowing up the runabout, though. Dirty pool.

Yes, they blew up the runabout. And once again Sisko had no choice but to retreat into the Jem'Hadar ship and try to use it to bargain for the safety of his away team.

So why didn't Sisko use that has a reason not to leave the Ship? Why did he use the Finders Keepers Losers Weepers rule? He Insisted the ship was theirs even when the hot Vorta mentioned to him he sounds like a thief.

It's called negotiation. The Dominion destroyed their runabout without even a blink or warning or anything. What makes you think they'll just let everyone leave without harming or capturing them? After all, the first time they met Jem'Hadar, was when Sisko was kidnapped. Sisko's only choice was to remain in the ship in the hope that the Jem'Hadar won't fire on their own ship. As it happens, the Dominion has no qualms about firing on their own ship but luckily for Sisko, there was a changeling onboard.

 

[Bluesteel]

Non-military vessels? Of the Dominion? What do you think such vessels would contain? More Jem'Hadar? But wait. Jem'Hadar are soldiers. Or maybe there'd be ships full of Vorta or Founders being transported and operated only by Vorta?
C'mon, given all of their past hostile acts, there is no reason to trust the Dominion and you know it. Besides, like I said, there are no non-military vessels of the Dominion. That was just a foolish ploy by Weyoun, a pretense to try to act like he was negotiating.

The Jem' Hadar and Vorta are members of the Domion. Any Dominion ship that comes HAS to include them. But how do you know that there aren't any military vessels in the Dominion? It's a big empire. There HAS to non-vessels if they are to run and prosper.

The rest of the stuff you said sounds off. The Dominion can't be trusted? So there is nothing they could have done other then give Cardassia up that would have stopped the wormhole from being mined in your eyes.


[QUOTEIt's called negotiation. The Dominion destroyed their runabout without even a blink or warning or anything. What makes you think they'll just let everyone leave without harming or capturing them? After all, the first time they met Jem'Hadar, was when Sisko was kidnapped. Sisko's only choice was to remain in the ship in the hope that the Jem'Hadar won't fire on their own ship. As it happens, the Dominion has no qualms about firing on their own ship but luckily for Sisko, there was a changeling onboard.][/QUOTE]

I think we're talking about different episodes. Sisko WANTED the ship not to get off but for the intelligence coup. When he said that ship was his he meant it. There is even a scene at the end about the importance of the ship outweighing the death of his crew.

 

[rahullak]

Non-military vessels? Of the Dominion? What do you think such vessels would contain? More Jem'Hadar? But wait. Jem'Hadar are soldiers. Or maybe there'd be ships full of Vorta or Founders being transported and operated only by Vorta?
C'mon, given all of their past hostile acts, there is no reason to trust the Dominion and you know it. Besides, like I said, there are no non-military vessels of the Dominion. That was just a foolish ploy by Weyoun, a pretense to try to act like he was negotiating.

The Jem' Hadar and Vorta are members of the Domion. Any Dominion ship that comes HAS to include them. But how do you know that there aren't any military vessels in the Dominion? It's a big empire. There HAS to non-vessels if they are to run and prosper.

The Jem'Hadar are soldiers. The Vorta are negotiators and managers of soldiers. If every ship that carries these two groups of people and is controlled by them, how can any Dominion ship be considered a non-military ship?

There are no non-military vessels in the Dominion, since we have not seen a single one onscreen. They don't need non-military vessels, since the Jem'Hadar can basically carry out any task they're trained to do. They even carry cargo in the same military vessels (we have evidence of that onscreen). Furthermore, we go by what we see onscreen. Not some speculative fanfiction.

They don't have medics, nurses, poets, scientists, etc. The only things they construct are Ketracel-white facilities to feed the soldiers and facilities to build warships. Warships that double as cargo ships.

The rest of the stuff you said sounds off. The Dominion can't be trusted? So there is nothing they could have done other then give Cardassia up that would have stopped the wormhole from being mined in your eyes.

Stop putting words in my mouth and taking things out of context, it just sounds ridiculous. I never said the Dominion would have to give Cardassia up. I said, there's no reason for Sisko and the UFP to trust the Dominion to keep their word about either needing that massive armada to protect Cardassia or about sending only "non-military" vessels (of which the Dominion have none). In other words, they had no choice but to mine the wormhole. The Dominion gave them no choice. The Dominion on the other hand, could have simply stopped their military buildup. Could have entered into peaceful negotiations with the UFP. Could have settled for peaceful co-existence. But did they?

It's called negotiation. The Dominion destroyed their runabout without even a blink or warning or anything. What makes you think they'll just let everyone leave without harming or capturing them? After all, the first time they met Jem'Hadar, was when Sisko was kidnapped. Sisko's only choice was to remain in the ship in the hope that the Jem'Hadar won't fire on their own ship. As it happens, the Dominion has no qualms about firing on their own ship but luckily for Sisko, there was a changeling onboard.]

I think we're talking about different episodes. Sisko WANTED the ship not to get off but for the intelligence coup. When he said that ship was his he meant it. There is even a scene at the end about the importance of the ship outweighing the death of his crew.

We're talking about the same episode. Sisko finds a crashed Dominion ship. It would have been an intelligence coup had they salvaged it. But lo and behold, another Dominion ship shows up and destroys the runabout in orbit of the planet (alongwith its crew) without any warning or any attempt to communicate. There's no safe way off the planet now. There's no safe place on the planet for the away team. The crashed ship is their only slim hope. Luckily, the ship has something valuable: a Founder. Otherwise, the Jem'Hadar would've blown their own ship to kingdom come.

As I said before, it's called negotiation. There's no reason for Sisko to trust the Vorta's word especially after they murdered those crewmen and destroyed their ship for no reason. They would have likely been captured and sent to a Dominion prison. So Sisko chose to use the "finders-keepers" tack and the Vorta was using the "We won't harm you" tack. It was all just words. Get it now? The Vorta didn't even negotiate in good faith. Transported a Jem'Hadar into the ship during the negotiations. Just confirmed Sisko's decision not to trust the Vorta.

Sisko and the crew had no choice but to retreat into the ship and take cover until help or the Defiant arrived. EDIT: As it happened, the death of the Founder caused all the Jem'Hadar to commit suicide and Sisko and crew were able to leave with the Jem'Hadar ship.

 

[Jono]

^ To be fair they do seem to have scientists, the Vorta seem to perform that role as well given that they were working on a cure for the Founder's disease.

With Weyoun and his "negotiations" the fact is he went in and was not willing to negotiate. He had an ultimatum, take down the minefield immediately or else. If he had been willing to negotiate he might have been able to get limited access to the wormhole if he was willing to compromise and work out a deal. If he had been the Dominion would probably have won the war in the end. Delaying the war really only helps the Dominion. While the Federation and Klingons would also benefit in the sense they would be able to build more ships and train more soldiers the fact is the Dominion can do all that much quicker and to the point where, at least it was believed, that they would be able to overrun the quadrant even without help from the GQ. They had a choice as to what action to take and they chose war. Really Weyoun should have started it immediately instead of going back to get Dukat. He should have opened fire on the Defiant and minefield, sure his ship would have been destroyed and he would have been killed but so what if he can buy any extra 20 mins. Then again if Dukat had not primarily targeted DS9 and gone for the minefield the war would be over as soon as it began, but I can only guess that it was his ego and his need to prove he was better than Sisko helped make sure that the Dominion was to be isolated...that is of course supposing that Dukat didn't want the Dominion in the AQ to be cut off from the GQ. By doing so he keeps the importance of Cardassia and makes the Dominion presence a smaller one and possible one that can be "managed" in the future.

 

[nx1701g]

I don't see what the difference is between "recruit new planets" and "expand territory" as far the UFP is concerned. Remember, the UFP does not do things like other imperialistic powers. They allow new planets to decide whether it is to their benefit to join the Federation and upon meeting the requirements, the planet becomes a Federation member state and is then protected by Starfleet. I don't see the difference between this and settling on a new uninhabited (by sentient life) and unclaimed planet, claiming it as a Federation world and having Starfleet protect it. In both cases it is expansion of territory as well as "recruitment" of new planets.

There is a difference between you establishing a colony and a planet joining you of their own free will.

That's not my point. There's no difference in terms of protection or territory once the colony has been established or the planet joins of their free will. Once the new planet is part of the UFP, it becomes UFP territory. Both are different modes of "expansion". So saying the UFP can't expand into the GQ is incorrect if you say that they can recruit new planets in the GQ. The new planets become UFP territory, which Starfleet can protect and build spacestations/bases there.

No you misunderstand me I'm afraid. From most foreign policy standpoints (even today) most colony creation activities are typically deemed to be military in origin - if this is changed in the Star Trek universe who knows. The Treaty I linked to states that the Federation cannot expand into a territory through military operations. Diplomacy is not considered to be a military operation.

 

[rahullak]

There is a difference between you establishing a colony and a planet joining you of their own free will.

That's not my point. There's no difference in terms of protection or territory once the colony has been established or the planet joins of their free will. Once the new planet is part of the UFP, it becomes UFP territory. Both are different modes of "expansion". So saying the UFP can't expand into the GQ is incorrect if you say that they can recruit new planets in the GQ. The new planets become UFP territory, which Starfleet can protect and build spacestations/bases there.

No you misunderstand me I'm afraid. From most foreign policy standpoints (even today) most colony creation activities are typically deemed to be military in origin - if this is changed in the Star Trek universe who knows. The Treaty I linked to states that the Federation cannot expand into a territory through military operations. Diplomacy is not considered to be a military operation.

I understand. Thanks for the correction!

 

[Bluesteel]

The Jem'Hadar are soldiers. The Vorta are negotiators and managers of soldiers. If every ship that carries these two groups of people and is controlled by them, how can any Dominion ship be considered a non-military ship?

There are no non-military vessels in the Dominion, since we have not seen a single one onscreen. They don't need non-military vessels, since the Jem'Hadar can basically carry out any task they're trained to do. They even carry cargo in the same military vessels (we have evidence of that onscreen). Furthermore, we go by what we see onscreen. Not some speculative fanfiction.

They don't have medics, nurses, poets, scientists, etc. The only things they construct are Ketracel-white facilities to feed the soldiers and facilities to build warships. Warships that double as cargo ships.

I'm not going by fanfiction here just by logic. It's impossible to run a country let alone a vast interstellar empire if all you have is military ships. Since Weyoun offered to send them only we can accept that there ARE there.

Stop putting words in my mouth and taking things out of context, it just sounds ridiculous. I never said the Dominion would have to give Cardassia up. I said, there's no reason for Sisko and the UFP to trust the Dominion to keep their word about either needing that massive armada to protect Cardassia or about sending only "non-military" vessels (of which the Dominion have none). In other words, they had no choice but to mine the wormhole. The Dominion gave them no choice. The Dominion on the other hand, could have simply stopped their military buildup. Could have entered into peaceful negotiations with the UFP. Could have settled for peaceful co-existence. But did they?

The only problem is that when the Dominion did try and negiogate...... Sisko went ahead and mined the wormhole.

We're talking about the same episode. Sisko finds a crashed Dominion ship. It would have been an intelligence coup had they salvaged it. But lo and behold, another Dominion ship shows up and destroys the runabout in orbit of the planet (alongwith its crew) without any warning or any attempt to communicate. There's no safe way off the planet now. There's no safe place on the planet for the away team. The crashed ship is their only slim hope. Luckily, the ship has something valuable: a Founder. Otherwise, the Jem'Hadar would've blown their own ship to kingdom come.

As I said before, it's called negotiation. There's no reason for Sisko to trust the Vorta's word especially after they murdered those crewmen and destroyed their ship for no reason. They would have likely been captured and sent to a Dominion prison. So Sisko chose to use the "finders-keepers" tack and the Vorta was using the "We won't harm you" tack. It was all just words. Get it now? The Vorta didn't even negotiate in good faith. Transported a Jem'Hadar into the ship during the negotiations. Just confirmed Sisko's decision not to trust the Vorta.

Sisko and the crew had no choice but to retreat into the ship and take cover until help or the Defiant arrived. EDIT: As it happened, the death of the Founder caused all the Jem'Hadar to commit suicide and Sisko and crew were able to leave with the Jem'Hadar ship.

Your making it sound like he didn't want the ship. He wanted it badly. He kept going on and on about how important the ship was not in term of safety (since all they had to do was hold out for two days before the Defiant came). He wanted to bring the ship with him for the intelligence purpose. The stuff about safety was just an added extra. It wouldn't have mattered to him if the safety of his men weren't in question.

 

[rahullak]

The Jem'Hadar are soldiers. The Vorta are negotiators and managers of soldiers. If every ship that carries these two groups of people and is controlled by them, how can any Dominion ship be considered a non-military ship?

There are no non-military vessels in the Dominion, since we have not seen a single one onscreen. They don't need non-military vessels, since the Jem'Hadar can basically carry out any task they're trained to do. They even carry cargo in the same military vessels (we have evidence of that onscreen). Furthermore, we go by what we see onscreen. Not some speculative fanfiction.

They don't have medics, nurses, poets, scientists, etc. The only things they construct are Ketracel-white facilities to feed the soldiers and facilities to build warships. Warships that double as cargo ships.

I'm not going by fanfiction here just by logic. It's impossible to run a country let alone a vast interstellar empire if all you have is military ships. Since Weyoun offered to send them only we can accept that there ARE there.

You are going by your own assumptions based on some real-world analogue. Fact of the matter is, there is no real-world analogue to the Dominion. They aren't a normal nation-state. They're composed of shape-shifting founders who have genetically-engineered Jem'Hadar to help defend, conquer and dominate militarily and Vorta who act as managers, negotiators and go-betweens so that the Jem'Hadar can be organized.

The Founders don't need food or shelter or any other resources. All they need is the Great-Link and defense of their home planet. The Jem'Hadar exist solely to serve the Founders and only need Ketracel-white to function. They're bred in birthing chambers. The same for the Vorta, who only exist to serve the Founders. So no, it isn't a normal country, and the sole purpose of the Dominion is to dominate and bring "order", their version of it, to the galaxy: we've onscreen evidence of how the Dominion operates. We need nothing more to convince us of this.

Given this, there are no "civilian" Dominion ships (and no onscreen evidence of even a hint of one). There are just military Dominion ships.

Stop putting words in my mouth and taking things out of context, it just sounds ridiculous. I never said the Dominion would have to give Cardassia up. I said, there's no reason for Sisko and the UFP to trust the Dominion to keep their word about either needing that massive armada to protect Cardassia or about sending only "non-military" vessels (of which the Dominion have none). In other words, they had no choice but to mine the wormhole. The Dominion gave them no choice. The Dominion on the other hand, could have simply stopped their military buildup. Could have entered into peaceful negotiations with the UFP. Could have settled for peaceful co-existence. But did they?

The only problem is that when the Dominion did try and negiogate...... Sisko went ahead and mined the wormhole.

That wasn't a negotiation at all. There are no civilian dominion ships. Even if there were (and there aren't), the Dominion has never wanted peace. Their past actions prove that. If Weyoun really wanted to negotiate, he could have taken it up with the highest levels of the Federation, the President perhaps, signed a non-aggression pact and peace-treaty (which the Federation would have been more than willing to sign). All he was looking for was an excuse to start hostilities which he was planning for anyway after trying to build up his armada to such an extent that the UFP would be essentially defenceless. Again, the mark of a violent aggressor intent on domination and nothing else.

We're talking about the same episode. Sisko finds a crashed Dominion ship. It would have been an intelligence coup had they salvaged it. But lo and behold, another Dominion ship shows up and destroys the runabout in orbit of the planet (alongwith its crew) without any warning or any attempt to communicate. There's no safe way off the planet now. There's no safe place on the planet for the away team. The crashed ship is their only slim hope. Luckily, the ship has something valuable: a Founder. Otherwise, the Jem'Hadar would've blown their own ship to kingdom come.

As I said before, it's called negotiation. There's no reason for Sisko to trust the Vorta's word especially after they murdered those crewmen and destroyed their ship for no reason. They would have likely been captured and sent to a Dominion prison. So Sisko chose to use the "finders-keepers" tack and the Vorta was using the "We won't harm you" tack. It was all just words. Get it now? The Vorta didn't even negotiate in good faith. Transported a Jem'Hadar into the ship during the negotiations. Just confirmed Sisko's decision not to trust the Vorta.

Sisko and the crew had no choice but to retreat into the ship and take cover until help or the Defiant arrived. EDIT: As it happened, the death of the Founder caused all the Jem'Hadar to commit suicide and Sisko and crew were able to leave with the Jem'Hadar ship.

Your making it sound like he didn't want the ship. He wanted it badly. He kept going on and on about how important the ship was not in term of safety (since all they had to do was hold out for two days before the Defiant came). He wanted to bring the ship with him for the intelligence purpose. The stuff about safety was just an added extra. It wouldn't have mattered to him if the safety of his men weren't in question.

[/QUOTE]

No, I'm making it sound like: he wanted the ship, but if the Vorta had asked nicely (and had not wantonly destroyed Sisko's runabout), he would have been willing to give up the ship and the Founder had he been told about it. As it was, the actions of the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar left Sisko with no choice but to try and save the remainder of his crew and the only slim chance was remaining in the ship and fighting.

Again and again we see the Dominion commiting hostile acts first and then expecting the UFP to "submit". That's not the mark of a power wanting peace; it is the mark of a power wanting only to dominate and destroy anyone who doesn't submit to its will.

 

[Bluesteel]

You are going by your own assumptions based on some real-world analogue. Fact of the matter is, there is no real-world analogue to the Dominion. They aren't a normal nation-state. They're composed of shape-shifting founders who have genetically-engineered Jem'Hadar to help defend, conquer and dominate militarily and Vorta who act as managers, negotiators and go-betweens so that the Jem'Hadar can be organized.

The Founders don't need food or shelter or any other resources. All they need is the Great-Link and defense of their home planet. The Jem'Hadar exist solely to serve the Founders and only need Ketracel-white to function. They're bred in birthing chambers. The same for the Vorta, who only exist to serve the Founders. So no, it isn't a normal country, and the sole purpose of the Dominion is to dominate and bring "order", their version of it, to the galaxy: we've onscreen evidence of how the Dominion operates. We need nothing more to convince us of this.

Given this, there are no "civilian" Dominion ships (and no onscreen evidence of even a hint of one). There are just military Dominion ships.

All right then logic is out. What about the writers? Do their opinion count since we've used Moores opinion here. One of the Writers Robert Wolfe mentioned the way the Dominion works is by providing worlds supplies to get them to join. If they refuse they would send in the Jem'Hadar. Clearly it looks like they have non-military logistics. I think that was on S3 DVD.

That wasn't a negotiation at all. There are no civilian dominion ships. Even if there were (and there aren't), the Dominion has never wanted peace. Their past actions prove that. If Weyoun really wanted to negotiate, he could have taken it up with the highest levels of the Federation, the President perhaps, signed a non-aggression pact and peace-treaty (which the Federation would have been more than willing to sign). All he was looking for was an excuse to start hostilities which he was planning for anyway after trying to build up his armada to such an extent that the UFP would be essentially defenceless. Again, the mark of a violent aggressor intent on domination and nothing else.

Only one problem with that.

1: Negiogations are there to end past hostilities and move into the undiscovered country of peace. There was and ENTIRE trek film about making peace with your enemies despite their past actions.

2: Sisko was in control of the wormhole. Weyoun wanted access to the wormhole kept open. Logically he had to talk to sisko. By the time he starts to negotiate with the President Sisko would have mined the wormhole and the Federation would have been in a better position to bargain.

3: Yeah everyone knew The Dominion were up to something. How ever does that make it right for Sisko lose the moral high ground? The intent of Sisko in mining the wormhole was to fight the Dominion/Cardassia not the entire Union or a part of it. He clearly expected war to come. It wasn't a WW1 kind of conflict where Russia butting into Austro-Hungarian/Serbian affairs brought Germany and France in. He wanted the war and he got the war. He knew the Dominion HAD to stop him.

No, I'm making it sound like: he wanted the ship, but if the Vorta had asked nicely (and had not wantonly destroyed Sisko's runabout), he would have been willing to give up the ship and the Founder had he been told about it. As it was, the actions of the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar left Sisko with no choice but to try and save the remainder of his crew and the only slim chance was remaining in the ship and fighting.

Again and again we see the Dominion commiting hostile acts first and then expecting the UFP to "submit". That's not the mark of a power wanting peace; it is the mark of a power wanting only to dominate and destroy anyone who doesn't submit to its will.

There is no way Sisko would have left in a runabout without the ship. The Runabout was to slow to escape from the Jem'Hadar ship and to weak to fight back or defend it's self.

P.s. keeping the wormhole open or attempting to mine in Gamma Quadrant isn't clearly a sign of a power wanting peace. They knew how the Dominion were going to react. Starfleet should study up on realpolitik. It doesn't matter if your right. What matters is the end result.

 

[DimesDan]

3: Yeah everyone knew The Dominion were up to something. How ever does that make it right for Sisko lose the moral high ground? The intent of Sisko in mining the wormhole was to fight the Dominion/Cardassia not the entire Union or a part of it. He clearly expected war to come. It wasn't a WW1 kind of conflict where Russia butting into Austro-Hungarian/Serbian affairs brought Germany and France in. He wanted the war and he got the war. He knew the Dominion HAD to stop him.

I'm sure a person more versed in the Great War and it's lead up will go more in depth or dispute what I say next, but there are parallels between the opening of hostilities between the United Federation of Planets and the Dominion and that of Great Britain, Russia, France and Germany, The Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They knew war was on the horizon, due to the military build up of Germany, it just needed something to light the touch powder, in the case of the Great War, it was the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and the declarations of war between the allied powers of Europe.

In the case of the Federation/Dominion War, yes there were incidents over the years leading up, but the straw that broke the camels back was the mining of the Wormhole. Now if the Federation hadn't taken this move and war had been declared a year later, something tells me that the Federation would probably have fallen which if I remember rightly was the original idea Ira Behr had before Rick Berman had said no.

 

[Anwar]

Behr is a moron if he thinks that would have been a better ending. Berman should be commended for shooting THAT down.

 

[Vonstadt]

As Temis said "In the end, they called it a draw. Pretty realistic and sophisticated depiction of warfare, I'd say. "

I agree, both sides were opposing cultures and failed to communicate the needs and fears of the other properly. Both sides failed diplomatically as it is often said war is the failure of all diplomacy.

Or maybe it was as Powers Boothe's Air Force Major put it in the cheesey 80's war movie Red Dawn. This was his answer when one of the kids asked "What started it?"

"I don't know. Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later, they're gonna fight.

As good as any explanation to describe the Cold War like build up and the eventual shooting war that ensued. The Feds/Allies were in terroritory that wasn't theirs and the Dominion overeacted due to an enormous predjuiced against solids that had abused them centuries ago.

A fight was coming, I think no matter what the Feds and their allies did, I think eventually as it expanded the Dominon , maybe even a hundred years from the show's timeline would've felt the need to expand to 'protect' themselves into the AQ even if the UFP and the other powers stayed clear of the GQ. Just knowing such powers of solids were in the AQ uncontrolled would've led to Dominion agression.

Their government was built around fear and prejudice, hard to overcome such a thing. The Dominion fell prey to their own fear and become that very thing they hated.

Vons

 

[Myasishchev]

Behr is a moron if he thinks that would have been a better ending. Berman should be commended for shooting THAT down.

I dunno. I still think the near-collapse of the Federation until such time as Bashir found a cure for the Founders' plague would've been interesting.

And I've always thought that it's been hard to reconcile the wide range of the war with the totally static front between Cardassia and Bajor that Berman demanded. Keeping with the theme of World War I analogies, Bajor should've looked like Verdun or Ypres by the end of the war...

 

[Timo]

...Of course, we can choose another analogy and remember the static lines between Washington and Richmond in 1861-65, as opposed to the sweeping maneuvers and bloody battles farther west. Or we may think of the impasse across the narrow English Channel while vast armies rumbled across continents and oceans in 1940-44.

Basically, if there was any further battling in Cardassian space beyond Bajor, it would have to be in the Cardassian home system proper. Which wouldn't be good for drama, or for the logic of the war. OTOH, there was nothing of strategic importance at Bajor, not after the Prophets had declared the wormhole off limits. It would have been pretty silly for the Dominion to expend any forces in taking a worthless system with a single inhabited but already strip-mined planet...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Myasishchev]

...Of course, we can choose another analogy and remember the static lines between Washington and Richmond in 1861-65, as opposed to the sweeping maneuvers and bloody battles farther west. Or we may think of the impasse across the narrow English Channel while vast armies rumbled across continents and oceans in 1940-44.

Basically, if there was any further battling in Cardassian space beyond Bajor, it would have to be in the Cardassian home system proper. Which wouldn't be good for drama, or for the logic of the war. OTOH, there was nothing of strategic importance at Bajor, not after the Prophets had declared the wormhole off limits. It would have been pretty silly for the Dominion to expend any forces in taking a worthless system with a single inhabited but already strip-mined planet...

Timo Saloniemi

The importance of Bajor was a base of operations next to what is presumably the social, political and economic hub of the Cardassian Union.

Of course the limited physical distance between the Pas de Calais and Dover is absolutely not analogous, unless there's an equivalent of the English Channel between Bajor and Cardassia.

The thing about the impasse between the Armies of Virginia and Northern Virginia is that they concentrated massive force to deter the other from marching on their respective capitals, something they couldn't do further west, something analogous to the concentration of force after the first few months after August 1914, and something not altogether apparent in DS9.

Still, you're right, I guess we have to presume that, even if they weren't on camera, both the Cardassian and Bajoran systems had hundreds if not thousands of starships stationed in and around them at any time, plus significant shore defenses and maintenance/resupply bases.

Personally, I'm surprised they never towed a spacedock or at least one of the smaller "real" starbases to Bajoran orbit.

Really, I think it would've been just a lot better if in the early episodes, they had established Cardassia as being a lot further from Bajor than it must be. It's kind of weird that they never expanded beyond it, but I guess the Feds got there first, constraining the CU to expand only in the other direction (until the wars, of course).