RE: Communication and Travel

You wrote: 

>Israel is not a colony so I can't see the comparison.	When I think of

Given it wasn't even a theoretical concept 100 years ago, had 
negligable amounts Jews actually living there until what, 70 or so 
years ago (Even in 1948, 600K Jews, a tenth of today's population), and 
no real industry until the past 50 (or less) years, there are certain 
comparisions that could be made.

>colony I think of early settlers/homesetters much like colonial 
america >ie - not a lot in terms of weapons, small arms for sure, but 
nothing >comparable to a 'Space Marine' force.

Depends on rate of colonization, local hostile natives (not a major 
problem in most space settings) et al.	Remember ship sizes and speed 
of transit, too.  And after 171 years (Jamestown in 1607 to 1776) of 
slow, fitful, lowtech colonization, we were too big to conquer, and 
that's with a very high level of loyalty to mother country--we were 
defending ourselves pretty well against Indians and Frenchmen (note no 
joke here--it was difficult, but I resisted) many years before.  That 
is also with pre-industrial capabilities, no medicine to speak of, 
animal-powered farming, etc, etc, etc.

>When you get to the size of 6 million inhabitants I would consider the
>planet habitated.

Of course--and practically unconquerable.

And let's not get into colonies with a religious, philisophical, or 
nationalistic motivator to resist, even through guerilla warfare. . . 

John