Re: [FT]USA in Full Thrust...

----------
> Från: Donald Hosford <hosford.donald@acd.net>
> Till: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
> Ämne: Re: [FT]USA in Full Thrust...
> Datum:  den 16 april 1999 09:01
> 
> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
> 
> > Donald Hosford wrote:
> >
> > Hm. Strange file format - or, rather, the file wants to be opened
by
> > ALIFE.EXE (which it claims is "required to read this type of .ASC
> > files", which is obviously wrong since Wordpad works just as well
:-/ )
> >
> 
> Sorry that I can't help you there...does the ALIFE.EXE program have a
way
> to tell it not to do that?  (ie: tell it to stop monitoring for that
file
> format?)
> 
> >
> > > This file is my take on the United States.  (They secretly build
> > > starships, and leave the solar system in 2053.  They later return
in
> > > 2188.)
> >
> > Well...
> >
> > The comment about "I can't see how the NAC would say no" to ceding
the
> > USA is... strange, to say the least.
> >
> > Put it like this: How would the current US government react if,
during
> > WWII, all of a sudden the (well-armed and numerous) descendants of
> > Sitting Bull turned up out of nowhere and demanded that all the
Plains
> > states be immediately turned over to them, or else...? The
situation is
> > a very close analogue to your storyline.

> Well I did say that it seemed unlikely that the Americans would
remain 
> that mad for 135 years...

*That* part I don't have any problem with at all - not when the purpose
of the original exodus was to come back and get even. I wouldn't be the
least surprised if the neo-American children were imprinted with that
purpose at a very early age, much like you are taught to honour the US
flag now... National myths and hatreds can be very long-lived indeed,
and not only in the Balkans... 

The part in the neo-American timeline about "traitors getting what they
deserve" (not verbatim), concerning those mainland Americans who
cooperated with the UK/Canadian forces, sounds quite a lot like Serb
slogans (or the propaganda/threats of any other totalitarian state or
terrorist organisation of your choice) and (in my eyes) reinforces the
impression of the neo-Americans as being rather fanatic (and capable of
coming up with an ultimatum like that).

> Besides, the various earth nations have been fighting the Kra'Vak for
the
> last 4-5 years, and they are slowly losing ground....

Compare this to a Neo-Indian ultimatum some time between Pearl Harbour
and Midway. Not that big a difference in the overall situation, except
that the KV are still only on the fringes whereas the Nazis had overrun
most of Europe (corresponding to a large portion of the Core Worlds in
the Tuffleyverse). Which situation is worse?

The NAC also have the British tradition of not losing wars no matter
the odds. Napoleon and Hitler both conquered most of Europe, but in
both cases Britain hung on and emerged victorious - with help from
others, certainly, but the NAC isn't completely without allies either.
In recent years Britain went to war (and a rather expensive war, at
that) to reconquer a few small islands which had been invaded (economic
value virtually nil, political value not much bigger, symbolic value
huge...). With a mindset like that, it is very unlikely that they'd
fold up easily.

So, if the neo-Americans made the ultimatum and didn't back down from
it, there'd certainly be war. The biggest question is what the
Americans still living on the North American continent would think
about it all :-/

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry