While it would be nice if we could up and pull out the Combat task force on a whim to deal with the Sydraxians, no matter what level of legislation we pass, it's not going to be enough to end the Syndicate quickly enough that we would have those vessels available. I think that building up the Yrillians and Gretarians will let us fix this problem more quickly. Moreover, once the Council is paying closer attention to this problem, we may get authorized to do things more effectively. How that will shake out I don't know, but I think that the Syndicate is not as important as foreign policy at present. The Syndicate is a festering wound. The Apiata and Sydraxians have the potential to blow up in our faces and start a real war with the Cardassians.
War between us and Sydraxia is very unlikely to result in war with Cardassia, unless the Cardassians decide to invade US opportunistically. Which, I suspect, would give us enough popular support that the Pacifists' plurality will not be a problem. I expect that we'd at least be able to pry loose Bajor and knock out the Sydraxians in the ensuing conflict, and that would be good enough for me.
Now, the Apiata situation
does have the position to start a war with Cardassia. But since literally every plan on offer spends the exact same amount of political will doing exactly the same thing on that issue, it doesn't make any difference for purposes of choosing one plan over another.
We're not going to have a free hand to fight a war, is the problem. As soon as we gain the upper hand, we will most likely be stuck with severe and escalating PP costs until we back off and end the war.
Er... what do you think would happen with an Expansionist plurality, anyway? If the Cardassians offer peace, the Expansionists would likely want to take it too. Even if a war starts, it's not going to end in the destruction of the Cardassian Union as a political entity, realistically. Not unless we somehow wound up with an overwhelming Hawk plurality, which isn't in the cards.
Realistically, the best we can expect from a war is to knock the Cardassians back. Blow up some of their ships, and, oh... I'd say our war aims should be:
1) Put an end to the Sydraxian raids by securing an agreement to that effect from the Sydraxian government.
2) Put an end to Sydraxian coercion of the Gretarians.
3) Keep Cardassian occupation troops off Bajor.
4) OPTIONAL: Partially disarm the Sydraxians
5) OPTIONAL: Declare the Bajor Sector to be neutral space, free of
both sides' military, with the structure of the Bajoran government to be determined by plebiscite among the Bajorans themselves.
We're not going to end this war with redshirt boots on Cardassian core worlds. Don't think of this as a total war along the lines of World War One and Two. Think in terms of the "
cabinet wars" of 17th and 18th century Europe. A few provinces change hands, one side may pay a modest fine, the more belligerent affiliates of one of the great powers get slapped hard, but the general shape of the map doesn't change very much.
This seems predicated on the idea we can resolve intractable Orion problem faster than we can intractable Syndraxi problem.
I see no particular reason for that to be the case. The Syndraxi problem has largely been intractable because we've ignored it, whereas the Orion problem is intractable because it is actually intractable and we have intelligence reports to prove it. Now if you're arguing the Orion problem assures we have to ignore the Syndraxi one, that has arguably been true, but things on that front are changing as our shipbuilding program improves our available resources. We will have options to cope with the Syndraxi in space before we are done with the long haul on the Syndicate.
I'm voting for a plan that spends 50pp on actions directed against the Sydraxian Hierarchy. Thirty to get the Council to talk about it, and twenty to get the Yrillians on our side, insofar as the Yrillians are on anybody's side.
Part of me wishes this plan
ALSO spent another 20pp on yet another action aimed at the Hierarchy, in the form of diplomacy to the Gretarians. But what it comes down to is that we have three pressing problems at this time: the Apiata, the Sydraxians, and the Syndicate. And my choices are:
Nix's Plan: 30pp on the Apiata, 70pp on the Sydraxians
lbmaian's Plan: 30pp on the Apiata, 50pp on the Sydraxians, 20pp on the Syndicate.
I feel that the latter breakdown is more in line with our priorities right now, so I'm voting for it.
EDIT: To clarify, none of the other plans on offer, EXCEPT
@Chaos Blade 's not-really-a-plan-for-voting plan, spends more than 100 TOTAL political will on the combination of "Apiata problem plus Sydraxian problem plus Syndicate problem." Most of them spend less. Chaos Blade's proposal spends 120, but at the cost of de-emphasizing crew recruitment compared to the plans of
@Nix and
@lbmaian.
And this is why I am voting for Nix's plan.
It doesn't waste pp on gaining influence that will not be used until next snakepit, instead going for a diplo-push that will help solve the Syndraxian problem
A diplomatic push on the Gretarians will probably ALSO not help until next year or later. Their relations with us are at 50/100; we have to push them at least twice, and/or have random events break in our favor, before they hit Affiliate status.
So you can't use "won't matter for the next twelve months" as a reason to favor pushing the Gretarians over building up anti-Syndicate influence.
