RE: UN Ship Nomenclature

John spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

 Without outside support revolutions don't suceed (except
> Eritrea, which is a hell of an exception to a lot of rules). 

What about the American Revolution, the Communist Revolution in 
China, the Russian Revolution? Do you really think that outside 
support was the major factor in all of these?

> Imagine if the US had, as our first act as an independant nation,
> rounded up a bunch of Frenchmen, kidnapped them, and abused them.

Except that weren't you pals with the French at that time? Do you 
think embassies in the history of the world have never been attacked 
by regular forces? I think in that you'd be mistaken, although I'll 
admit I could be wrong.

> >Or what if someone at an embassy had conducted some espionage or 
> >spying and the 'object' in question (badly wanted by planetary 
> >forces) was in the embassy. You might send in disguised regs amidst a

> >crowd or on their own in a 'deniable' mission. The embassy might be a

> >long long way from help or investigators.....
> 
> Somehow I doubt you'd get deniability out an operation like that. 
> Legal standards of proof aren't necessary when something like that
> occours.

And right now the US has trouble carrying out 'reprisals' against 
people who commit terrorist acts against it. Sometimes they'll launch 
a reprisal, but one has to ask oneself how many times they have no 
one to launch one against or how many of the ones they've executed 
are in fact at the right targets (as opposed to at a target for the 
purpose of saying reprisals have been conducted).  And that's when 
their forces are the biggest and baddest anywhere and they're 
operating on one globe, not scattered across the far flung reaches of 
space. 

Now, I'll give you that the Major powers are to be respected, and 
I'll also give you that some would have a reputation for NOT dealing 
with 'terrorists', although some may well do so. I'll further give 
you that shooting diplomats wouldn't always be bright. OTOH, you seem 
to think that the major powers have phenomenal ability to project 
their power everywhere into all the corners of the universe at once, 
that they have a gift for insight as to who did what that far 
exceeds any demonstrated current day capability, and that having the 
technical ability to carry out a reprisal is the same as having the 
political will or ability to do so. I guess it all depends on your 
world view. I don't think the Major powers are quite so monolithic or 
capable, and their actions will (as US has demonstrated) reflect 
their territorial interests. An offence against them in a small 
backward area that they aren't too concerned about will be unlikely 
to result in a full scale military response. Now, if someone moves 
with identifiable force against consuls on major worlds, that is of 
course a different story. I imagine in many revolutions, capture 
(excuse me 'temporary detention for their own security') of foreign 
personel has actually transpired. 

:) Anyway, it's all just a game and we can agree that messing with 
Major Powers is a risky manoevre, so its best that if you do this, 
you don't let it be known who is doing it. 

Tom. 
> John M. Atkinson
> 
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