Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition

Ithillid said:

The Trial of Redmond Boyle

After nearly a year of discussion and the rituals of a just trial, Redmond Boyle has been convicted of a laundry list of crimes, ranging from the relatively innocuous corruption and fiscal malfeasance, to multiple counts of gross incompetence and one of attempted crimes against humanity. The current Director General of GDI, having been called to testify, described Boyle's orders across the Third Tiberium War as being "A civilian attempting to assume operational command" and the strike at Temple Prime "An operation that was more political theater than military sense."
The now retired Melissa Wu, former assistant treasurer, testifying about his activities as secretary of the treasury, revealed that he was not only a goldbug, placing outsized importance on a gold reserve that had primarily been a dumping ground for excess gold produced by Tiberium refining operations, but had also been influential in assigning contracts to his friends and business partners, granting a handful of major companies undue and nearly unfettered access to GDI's funds and funding. While none of these are precisely new accusations, Wu is the most highly placed accuser, and has been instrumental in making the case for corruption.
GDI does not typically use the death penalty, reserving it soly for those too highly placed to be left alive. Generally, it represents an acknowledgement that what the person knows is too important, too dangerous, to be left out into the general population, and as such is almost always used against the very highest ranking members of the Initiative's civil and military commands. Boyle, despite being a coward in life, went to his death well, choosing a firing squad, and facing it with courage.
As a case, this one is notably unusual. Instead of calling the accusations a NOD plant, or having been a case of Brotherhood misinformation. While far from a foolproof method for avoiding punishment, the Brotherhood does tend to muddy the waters enough for some of the otherwise guilty to sow enough doubt to escape punishment. However, in this case, while NOD is involved, it seems to be a clear cut case of picking their person to survive the Philadelphia attack, rather than a matter of misplaced guilt.

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A Golden ScapeGoat
Tomorrow, GDI will shoot a guilty man, and yet it will be a miscarriage of justice

Propelled into leadership after the tragic destruction of the Philadelphia, Redmond Boyle was an unknown figure when he took the reins of GDI. Unbeknownst to him, he would be the lynchpin in a plan by Nod Mastermind Kane, setting in motion a chain of events that would see the Earth invaded by alien force, bringing GDI to the brink of extinction. Even now, their so called Treshold towers over Southern Italy, impervious to any of GDI's attempts to bring it down, or even understand it. The third Tiberium war, in which Boyle played a vital role, claimed nearly a hundred million lives directly and indirectly. Even now, the damage to blue and yellow zone infrastructure is still being repaired, with the earliest hope for recovery still decades in the future.

It is true that Boyle's involvement was essential for the development of this war. That without his desire to target the Temple Prime with an orbit ion bombardment, the Scrin would not have arrived. The Boyle administration was languished with corruption, meddling and the persistence desire of placing political appearances over military reality. But none of this amounts to a crime that justifies the penalty that is now being applied. Corruption and gross incompetence are crimes which carry only fines and minor prison sentences, and the Temple Strike has been a scenario for which GDI military command has long since advocated. The names of those who know criticize Boyle for his rash actions can be found on a number of papers and memoranda, all advocating for a more extensive use of orbital bombardement. And let us not forget that when Boyle ordered the Temple Prime strike, he was aiming to ape the end of the First Tiberium War, when GDI obliterated Nod Temples in Cairo and Sarajevo. Indeed, this first experience, where GDI lost countless soldiers against dug-in Black Hand troopers, formed the basis for many documents advocating further strikes. Thus, while it is undoubtely true that it was not Boyle's position to authorize the strike, it is hardly an unjustified decision.

Boyle then was a man trust into responsibilities beyond his abilities, in a system which had been gutted by Nod attacks. Dereft of adequate knowledge, and burned by his own corruption and vices, he made a number of questionabele decisisions, but none of these were as questionable or controversial as GDI would like to make it seem.

Even Boyle's most questionable decision, the construction and authorization to fire of a massive Liquid Tiberium bomb, makes sense once viewed in the larger perspective of the invasion. While it is easy to say now that Victory was assured and possible by conventional means, at the time when Boyle made his decision, this was far from certain. Scrin forces on Earth where increasing by the hour, and GDI commands across the world where failing. In the time it took for GDI forces to fight their way towards the Relay Node, a million people had been killed or maimed. Worse, this slow, grinding methodological advance made GDI's plan painfully clear. It is only through luck that the Scrin appeared either unable or unwilling to deploy additional relay nodes. Had they done so, Earth would surely have fallen.

The high command of GDI knew this. This is why they permitted Boyle to build and arm his warhead. The man alone, though he had the political power, had neither the know how nor connections to organize a military effort of this scale. GDI aided and abetted the construction of the bomb whose very existence they now denounce every step of the way. If it had been used, they would have emerged from the shadows, ready to heap themselves in glory. But now they hide, content to let Boyle take the bullet.

In this way, Boyle, with his obvious corruption and obsession with gold, makes for a perfect scapegost. With blame firmly pinned on one man, many others have seen their sins quitely covered up. What about the failure of the satelitte defenses, which allowed the Philadelphia to be so easily destroyed? That has not been resolved. Instead, GDI's defenses still rely on a single groundside facility. What about the failures of military intelligence, that allowed Nod to build multiple bases and deploy entire armies right inside even the most secure of blue zones. What about the Rocky mountains Complex, where Nod once again succeeded in suprising GDI military planners.What about the status of the Red and yellow zones, where decades of neglect have made GDI less popular than the green crystal that is literally eating the world.

GDI's flaws are legion. It's desire to pursue the highest charge for one man does not reflect justice, but is instead a show to placate a rightfully unhappy populace.