And the known presence of cardassian arms on the dawiar vessels isn't enough to acknowledge cardassian involvement? The red-hand we're looking for, so to speak?
Sure, the layman might not know, but certainly all the governments of the area know, and they are all that matter.
Plan was always to back off in the event of a military vessel. If the Caitians can't handle a freighter then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯There are a lot of problems with that, but the most relevant one I see involves putting the Caitians in the way of the Cardassians to actually enforce a blockade.
Plan was always to back off in the event of a military vessel. If the Caitians can't handle a freighter then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
no, it's meant to catch the Cardassian's supplying weapons to the Dawiar, and hopefully put a stop too it. All this while we find out exactly why the grumpy dwarves are trying to kill our cat-people, and put a stop to THAT!The the blockade is a meaningless do-nothing move, and only demonstrates our weakness and inability to control the Cardassians to our other allies, while costing us significantly in the court of public opinion back home.
If you agree that outside mediation is key, go with that. If you think that the UFP doesn't know enough to act on yet, go with that. If you want to say that you think a war is inevitable, go with that. If you think the biggest danger is the escalation of proxy war into general multi-faction war, go with that.
Impossible to answer without knowing the details of the situation at the time. My presumption is that we would be offered the option to declare a State of Emergency, and if we did that (and if it passed or was automatic) we would then go to monthly turns and be presented with detailed strategic options to choose from.
The most likely way the Cardassians escalate is declaring against the Caitians in defense of the Dawiar, which would basically force us to declare for the Caitians. Our best move is to prevent escalation by keeping the Cardassians away from the Caitians in every way we can.
Letting the Cardassians run a cruiser to Dawiar orbit, or forcing a Caitian-Cardassian confrontation in a Caitian blockade, or enforcing a policy where the Caitians can (through Obsidian Order manipulations), Lusitania a ship they shouldn't, would all be bad news and would likely bring the Cardassians against the Caitians. Such a move on the Cardassian part would be calculated because they would believe we would back down and let the Caitians take their licks, given that we understand they are not seeking a shooting war at this time. Obviously there is almost no situation where we'd allow a Cardassian-Caitian war without intervention, but they may force one anyway based on faulty ideas about our willingness to fight.
e: This is essentially the nightmare scenario of AKuz's and Jester's plan.
If you agree that outside mediation is key, go with that. If you think that the UFP doesn't know enough to act on yet, go with that. If you want to say that you think a war is inevitable, go with that. If you think the biggest danger is the escalation of proxy war into general multi-faction war, go with that.
Those aren't the only options, of course. Pick out what you think is the key issue you need to impress on the President.The problem is that all those things are likely (well maybe less so on direct war).