''Nominal Allies''

[Mark]

Well if news of the event reached the general public in the Empire the politicians may have been forced to withhold their troops from the War. I mean, they almost lost a major fleet without firing a shot, I'm sure the people wouldn't be happy about that. Not to mention the disgrace that would come from being tricked.

Not to mention the first fleet they lost. Well that the Tal'Shiar lost, but still, you can't really keep something like that a secret.

[Deepcrush]

I always picked that the Romulans were just looking for a clear winner. With the UFP and KE out of the way the Dominion would be uncheck. It would make sense to just keep the RSE many of the other smaller nations out of the war. Then when its over the Dominion wouldn't even have to lift a finger. Founders would speak and everyone would jump too.

[Reliant121]

That seems likely.

It may also be that the Original praetor/Proconsul/foreign affairs minister whatever was "removed" from office (probably assassinated by his rival) and the new one supported the war.

[Teaos]

Given that they themselves knew that they seriously outnumbered and outgunned the Federation, Klingons and Romulans combined, they shouldn't have had anything to fear from the. Particularly given that their only entry into Dominion space was a massive bottleneck it would be trivialy easy to fortify. There was no need to attack them, ergo it was conquest for the sake of conquest.

And when the Federation grew big enough and powerful enough to fly the long way to Dominion space and take them over?

The Dominion took them over as soon as they could, and to be fair the AQ powers did start invading the GQ first.

[Granitehewer]

i always thought that, the dominion did afterall warn the federation to desist charting the gamma quadrant, all be it after accrediting several conflicts to jem hadar retalliation, does anyone think that the federation refused or kow tow to bullying or was it a case of the federation being provocative and instigating the dominion war via it being intractable concerning mapping the gamma quadrant?

[Sionnach Glic]

And when the Federation grew big enough and powerful enough to fly the long way to Dominion space and take them over?

The Dominion had no idea of the Federation's rate of growth, either territorialy or technologicaly. Ergo they could not have known that the Federation would have outstripped them in time.

The Dominion took them over as soon as they could, and to be fair the AQ powers did start invading the GQ first

Fair point, I hadn't thought of that.

[KuvahMagh]

The Dominion had no idea of the Federation's rate of growth, either territorialy or technologicaly. Ergo they could not have known that the Federation would have outstripped them in time.

That makes no real sense, I find it more likely that since the Dominion did not know all of this they would have been more likely to attack since people tend to fear the unknown and I doubt the Dominion is much different in that regard. In the episode where Sisko captures the downed bug the Changling and the Vorta were both so afraid of what the Humans might do that they essentially allowed her/him to die. They are Xenophobic, they have a bad history with Solids even if they occasionally start it, I'd say the relative unknowns in this case would make them more likely to attack rather than sit back.

[Teaos]

Not to mention the fact that they could find out pretty damn quickly.

[Mikey]

I believe that the UFP did stop incursions into the GQ when they were asked.

Teaos - does Seafort's example of the Teplan Blight count as evil.

[Teaos]

Depends why it was used, I cant remember it.

[Mikey]

Depends why it was used, I cant remember it.

To punish the Teplans for something like independent thought or somesuch.

[Teaos]

I'll look it up latter but with out knowing why I'm not going to comment.

[Captain Seafort]

From the script:

TREVEAN (Cont'd)
We believed nothing was beyond our
ability. We even thought we could
resist the Dominion.

Our people react.


TREVEAN
I see you've heard of them.
(beat)
Then take care not to defy them...
or your people will pay the same
price we did. The Jem'Hadar
came... and left our world
crushed, as an example to others.

Dax and Bashir exchange an uncomfortable look; the
potential parallels to the Federation are ominous.
Trevean motions to the Attendant.

TREVEAN
Bring Milani's child to me.
(turning to our people)
More than anything, the Dominion
wanted my people to bear the mark
of their defiance. And so they
gave us the Blight.

Trevean holds the BABY out for us to see... it has the
same blue welts on its face as everyone else. It's a
tragic sight, a symbol of hopelessness.

TREVEAN
We're all born with it... and we
all die from it. The Blight
quickens... the lesions turn
red... and death comes soon
after... Some die in childhood...
most before they can have children
of their own... only a few live to
be my age.

[Teaos]

Hmmm, thats nasty for sure but evil... evil is a strong word.

The Dominion is very clear in its goals, it wants to rule all. It seems like it can do it nicely as well some times.

These guys provoked them, they tickled a sleeping dragon. Sure it was nasty of the Dominion to do but it was again in retaliation.

Evil is doing something for the joy and pleasure of it. This is not evil, nasty - yes, evil - no.

[Mikey]

Really? Instead of simply putting down a rebellion - even if they had done so ruthlessly - they engineered a a disease which would slowly kill the entire population by killing more and more before they reached procreative age.

Sound evil to me.