Re: Communication and Travel

At 00:32 16/06/98 +0000, you wrote:
>On 14 Jun 98 at 16:48, John Atkinson wrote:
SNIP
> >Keep most of your forces in orbit with those on the ground quickly 
>> >reinforcable and with almost instant ortillery support.
>> 
>> Kinda hard to collect taxes from orbit.
>
>Send tax collectors, not infantry units.
SNIP>> Very difficult to control a city without a garrison.  You're
>> assuming all the little civillians and local military personell will
>> be so terrified they'll just do your bidding "or else".  Somehow I
>> doubt it, unless someone has managed to breed everything worth
>> keeping out of the human race.  
SNIP
>> And that leads to your enemy's navy nuking your planets, you nuke
>> their planets, and both sides are pretty much wiped out.  SNIP

>Plenty of wars are over simple hatred. In fact, probably the majority 
>of todays wars are, or have that as a major factor. Religious hatred, 
>class hatred, racial hatred, or a combination. I guess the Iraqi 
>invasion of Kuwait was one of the few invasions recently was largely 
>for (oil) resources.
>
>The thing is... if we don't find a way for planets being at least 
>worthwhile or feasible to try and conquer, then there isn't too 
>much point doing it.
>
>> John M. Atkinson
>> 
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Richard Slattery	      richard@mgkc.demon.co.uk

I'd suggest that the relatively large number of well-armed Powers, most
of
whom consider themselves civilized, and the relatively small number of
useful planets might well lead to formal laws of war, along the lines
of:
1) enemy civilians who don't engage in armed resistance musn't be harmed
or
mistreated, while franc-tireurs may be shot out of hand.
2) agreements that an invaded world not retaken or contested within a
certain length of time may be internationally recognized as belonging to
the
invaders.  This could be done with relatively small forces, and lead to
numerous actions of the GZG scales.
etc., etc.

The idea is generally along the lines of the mid-18th century European
idealized view of the conduct of war (at least within Europe), where
slaughters, especially of civilians, were at least _supposed_ to be
avoided.
None of the big powers wants to be condemned as brutal and monstrous,
and
the minor powers additionally want to avoid making themselves into
pariahs
who can't get help when they need it.

Treaties might also lead to a return of the "Defensively Equipped
Merchant
Ship", which is not allowed any forward-firing armament if it's to use
neutral ports- that would perhaps be a way to stop FT merchies behaving
like
large clumsy corvettes in convoy actions.

Rob

"Rob Paul

Dept of Zoology
Oxford University
South Parks Road
Oxford
(01865) 271124
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