Stagnation of Technology

[KuvahMagh]

Seafort makes a good point, for a peaceful society that hates conflict and doesn't teach Tactics, they sure do seem to get into a lot of Wars. Even if they win these relatively easily you would think they would start to wonder what they are doing wrong.

[Mikey]

That's been the contention of a number of us - notably Seafort, Rochey, and myself. A natioanl entity is going to get into wars sooner or later; it doesn't mean that they "did something wrong." Our contention was that, considering the inevitability of war, they should be better prepared for it, despite whatever rose-colored glasses they may want to wear.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

The Federation may be peace-loving, but it's neighbors are not; some of these powers may not accede to the Federation's negotiation until forced to by force of arms. While the Federation does have impressive military tech and a very strong military (for its universe), I have discussed here how it could be stronger yet, and as Mikey points out, better prepared.

[KuvahMagh]

I agree with you and have many times before, what I was actually reffering too was this part;

try and keep down the number of races-of the week the Feds have had wars with in the recent past.

The Writers try and portray the Feds as the good guys who always go for peace yet they love to throw in new Wars every chance they get. Simply using another Race that we already knew about would have cleared it up, I mean really you could use the Sheliak, or pretty much any other race, there.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

New theory: Trek writers suffered from ADD; symptoms being a compulsion to constantly create new species/particles/ships/etc of the week. If Trek had continued, we'd soon have more species in the local region than stars in the entire galaxy!

[Mark]

How many wars HAS Starfleet been in that we know of???

The Romulan War (Earth vs Romulus)
The Klingon War (The first one)
The Tholian Conflict
The Tzenkethi
The Cardassian War
The Borg (does that count as a war? Starfleet said that a state of war existed in I, Borg)
The Klingon Conflict
The Dominion War


Am I forgetting anything???

[Teaos]

"War" can be used very losely Just because a power isnt as large as the Federation doesnt mean it can't fight a war with it.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

"War" can be used very losely Just because a power isnt as large as the Federation doesnt mean it can't fight a war with it.

It only means it'll lose said war badly

[Sionnach Glic]

Aye. Iraq was crushed in about a month by the US, with very few casualties. It was still a war, however, even if it was horrendously one sided.

Similarly, the Tzenkethi don't need to be a serious challenge to the Feds to have a war with them. Hell, for all we know they had one planet, a couple of rust bucket ships with lasers strapped on and some serious dellusions of grandeur.

That's been the contention of a number of us - notably Seafort, Rochey, and myself. A natioanl entity is going to get into wars sooner or later; it doesn't mean that they "did something wrong." Our contention was that, considering the inevitability of war, they should be better prepared for it, despite whatever rose-colored glasses they may want to wear

Exactly. As the old saying goes "If you want peace, you must prepare for war".
The Federation's lack of proper military makes it a very tempting target for everyone around them. It's only through the fact that they're more technologicaly advanced than their neighbours that they've managed to survive so far. If they ever came up against a militarised opponenet on a similar tech level they'd be utterly screwed.

[Captain Seafort]

How many wars HAS Starfleet been in that we know of???

The Romulan War (Earth vs Romulus)
The Klingon War (The first one)
The Tholian Conflict
The Tzenkethi
The Cardassian War
The Borg (does that count as a war? Starfleet said that a state of war existed in I, Borg)
The Klingon Conflict
The Dominion War

Am I forgetting anything???

There was also:

The Gorn War (albeit it was a short one)
The Tomed Incident
The Sheliak War (possible)
The Talarian War
Various Ferengi skimishes (Maxia, Delphi Ardu, Braslota, etc)

[shran]

Could the Reman coup also be seen as an act of aggresion against the Federation, even though it occurred in romulan territory?

[Captain Seafort]

Could the Reman coup also be seen as an act of aggresion against the Federation, even though it occurred in romulan territory?

Not in the slightest - it was simply a coup against the Romulan government. The subsequent kidnapping of Picard and the Battle of the Basen Rift were certainly acts of war though.

[Deepcrush]

Though I would also count that as enough reason for the UFP too withdraw from the ToA and begin to produce cloaking tech.

[Sionnach Glic]

Don't forget the cold wars with the Klingons and the Romulans. While not shooting wars as such, they can hardly be called peaceful eras.

[Deepcrush]

True enough, they were a great deal of losses on all sides during the late 23rd through the mid 24th.