Re: On war
Donald Simmons (dfs@interlog.com)
Mon, 7 Jul 1997 18:47:11 -0400 (EDT)
> Exactly ! In a democratic system, soldiers get their position by their
> ability. Perhaps this is one major flaw of the story. The author must
> have forgotten about this resulting in the seeming incompetence of the
> Alliance Admirals and Vice-admirals. It could have been that the
> author meant the Alliance Admirals are competent but the Empire
> Admirals are geniuses .....
>
Really? In lots of democratic societies, you get your positions by
pulling strings and playing political games. I'm not saying it happens
always, or even a lot, but probably more often then we think. The Alliance
is so politically top-heavy that good soldiers are being forced out in
favour of yes-men. The Alliance invasion of the Empire is a perfect
example of this. Yang and others thought the plan was badly put together,
but what's-his-name had the ears of the politians and so his view
prevailed.
Donald Simmons