[X] You're better than this.
OTOH there is no better defense for anyone than Fear, especially when you are a small fry... If the Kaleesh annihilate the Huk, no one is ever going to try to enslave them, because they know the consequences...
Vlad the Impaler was a monster but it is undeniable that his brutality with the enemy was what kept Wallachia safe and independent for decades...
That leaves them free to buy more slaves in the future, killing them removes the problem...
If they annihilate the Huk.
How many Kaleeshi lives will that take? A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Half a million? More? Will it be worth it, when almost all your people are dead, just to spite those who have done you wrong?
No one will enslave the Kaleeshi, if they know the consequences. No one will also enslave the Kaleeshi, if every single one of them is dead.
And sure. Dukkra ba Dukkra - freedom or death as the same word. But there are a thousand ways to be free, and many of them don't involve death.
Thats the issue here. Forget the Yam'rii - is killing them all worth Kaleeshi lives? If there is a way where they don't have to die, should they not take it?
Besides that, Grievous's statement that there is no such thing as an innocent Huk and he can therefore indiscriminately bomb the civilians without batting an eye is a hell of a dangerous sentiment
Like, really none? They're just one blank monolith of evil?
No differing cultures or views in a population of billions? No conscientious objectors, or marginalized groups within the Huk themselves?
The baby Huk just hatch straight out of the egg that way and there's ontologically no hope for anything but a war of extermination?
(My understanding of Canon is that the Huk/Yam'rii don't really get much exploration beyond being an empire of slavers and their war with the Kaleesh, so they might as well just be uniform cookie cutouts of evil slavers one and all, since they're just there to serve as backstory for Grievous. But that leaves a lot of blank canvas for them to be explored a bit if you feel like it, and the general improbability of a population group large enough to be space faring being a completely homogenous group of uniform individuals.)
(Though alien races having a particular Hat they all adhere to is a thing that exists for practical reasons, because simulating dozens of different cultures for each alien race when you've got dozens or hundreds of them is a big ask.)
And more pointedly
Here Grievous has had the fortune of having Obi Wan be the Republic's mediator, who's first reaction to Grievous talking about how the Huk are oppressors and not innocents was complete willingness to believe in that and see the proof, and there's bound to be proof when we're talking planetwide scale genocide, slavery and oppression
Grievous has the opportunity here to achieve the liberation for his people that he's fighting for, and the only ask is, "Just don't bomb civilian cities"
And his response is "but I really want to bomb those cities" because it's not about protecting his people, it's about wanting revenge because he's been hurt and has lost someone important to him so he wants to hurt them back in turn
Which is a completely understandable emotion to have, but it's still an excuse
