- OrderedComa
- |
- Noble Member
Posted by: anton1792
The Insurrection, which is what the SPARTAN-IIs were originally created to combat, was a result of the UNSC's very authoritarian and totalitarian grip on all Human worlds. The outer colonies were badly exploited. From the Insurrectionists point of view there were famines and diseases on outer colony worlds that the UNSC could not care less about. They just mined the resources and then buggered off.
Of course it would be easy for one to say "but it proved instrumental for when the Covenant arrived". The UNSC did not know about the Covenant when the project was mandated.
Meh, I've never really seen anything that makes the UNSC seem like an oppressive totalitarian regime, they certainly aren't very democratic from what little we know, but I've never seen anything that makes them any better or worse really than the majority of governments we have today.
And I've never seen any evidence at all to support the Insurrectionist's claims that the UNSC was gobbling up all the resources from the colonies.
People wanted freedom from this exploitation, which began the Insurrection. Initially it was peaceful lobbying, but the UNSC refused to listen, things escalated and the UNSC/ONI met fire with fire. Had the UNSC not run the Human Empire with an iron fist, the Insurrection may never have happened and the impending civil war would most likely not have been a problem. The SPARTAN program was essentially an application of "Two wrongs make a right", which they do not. So the lives of 75 children/families were destroyed for a problem which they had no part in creating in order to fix said problem, which was created instead by the very organisation which mandated the project. There were other alternatives, like giving the colonies sovereignty.
When looking at things from the outside, as we are with Halo's story, you have to look at all sides to a story, and from what I've seen there is no evidence to back up the claims of the Insurrection, I've seen no exploitation of the colonies and no true oppression from the UNSC.
And IIRC the UNSC did not refuse to listen, they tried to find a solution to the problems the initial groups that evolved into the Innies brought up. And breaking away completely from the UNSC was an opinion of the few amongst the dissidents. In any case, the Insurrection crossed the line and became nothing more than a radical terrorist group that quickly moved from targeting just the UNSC military to civilians and anything in between.
*sigh*
That's not the reason for the Spartan program at all, the reason for the Spartan program was to eliminate the danger to the UNSC's stability and to protect its citizens from radical terrorists, whatever the intentions of the Innies might have been that is what they were. Nothing more than a group of radical terrorists going around killing massive numbers of people to try and make their point. And giving the colonies sovereignty would have done almost nothing. Do you honestly think that would have completely stopped the Insurrection? From everything I've seen the Insurrectionists would not have been satisfied with that, they would have wanted more and would have pushed for it.
It's like a child throwing a temper tantrum, if you give in to the tantrum the child is only going to throw more to get its way. The Insurrection is much the same thing.
Without giving in, which as I already said would not be the right decision, what other alternatives did the UNSC have?
Yes, the Spartan program was morally questionable, but it is much the same thing as when the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, if the U.S. and other Allied forces had invaded Japan then the death tolls would have been immensely catastrophic and would have far exceeded whatever deaths were caused by the bombs. The same is true of the Spartan program.
Edit: I should maybe also point out as well, that since the SPARTAN program exists to preserve the grip of the UNSC on the colonies, they are essentially being used to keep people in exploitation by preventing them from speaking out against the UNSC. They are tools of oppression in a sense.
Again, no, the Spartan program was created to end the threat presented by the rebels, they were not sent against normal civilians or used to suppress free speech. They were being used against terrorists killing thousands, if not millions, of innocent people, not against people had no part in the violence. I do not see them as tools of oppression at all.