Rewatching TNG and one line in Chain of Command made me laugh out loud. - eviltoast

During the negotiations with the Cardassians on the Enterprise Riker loudly exclaimes “the Federation will not start a war.” Oh please, the Federation have started almost every war we know they’ve had. Especially the Dominion War.

Burnham started the Klingon war and Starfleet started the Dominion war.

Focusing on the Doninion War, Starfleet discovers a stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant and starts exploring it. Fine, fair enough.

However in 2371 the Dominion warns Starfleet to stay on their side of the galaxy, stop planting colonies and stop violating Dominion territory. Again, fair enough.

After all would the Fedetation allow the Romulans to explore Federation space freely? Of course they wouldn’t. But the Federation expects to explore the territory of others freely because Starfleet believes they have a RIGHT to explore the galaxy and if that means crossing borders then so be it.

The Federation then gets all pissy when the Dominion sees them as such a threat they ally themselves with Cardassians to establish a permanent presence in the Alpha Quadrant. All this happens outside of Federation space so they have no rights to interfere as per the Prime Directive.

But do they leave the Cardassians to run their civilisation as they see fit? Of course not. They mine the wormhole which starts the war.

So as far as the Dominion War goes, the Federation were the clear aggressors. And let’s not get into the attempted genocide of the Founders.

  • c10l@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    2 days ago

    The Prime Directive is about not interfering with the natural evolution of non-spacefaring civilisations. It aims to not introduce advanced technology in less developed civilisations before they are prepared to handle it.

    It absolutely does not apply to either Cardassia or the Dominion, especially given they’re already establishing such presence precisely to fight against the Federation.

    Other than that I kind of agree with the rest of your post. Though personally I don’t consider Discovery canon so I’d discard that. I know a lot of people feel otherwise and they’re welcome to do so but I have no intention of debating this.

    • Stormy1701@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      25·
      2 days ago

      It applies to every non-Federation civilisation. Part of it does include not interfering with pre-warp planets but that’s just part of it.

      Also they have no jurisdiction over Cardassians affairs.

      But Prime Directive or not, the Federation started that war.

      Lower Decks effectively rendered Discovery non-canon in its finale so now it takes place in an alternate universe.

      • c10l@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        It applies to every non-Federation civilisation. Part of it does include not interfering with pre-warp planets but that’s just part of it.

        “Starfleet crew will obey the following with any civilization that has not achieved a commensurate level of technological and/or societal development as described in Appendix 1.”

        https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Prime_Directive (emphasis mine)

        Also they have no jurisdiction over Cardassians affairs.

        I don’t think they ever thought they did. They were going into war, not upholding law in their own territory.

        But Prime Directive or not, the Federation started that war.

        I have already agreed with that. 😃

        Lower Decks effectively rendered Discovery non-canon in its finale so now it takes place in an alternate universe.

        Haven’t watched it yet. Looking forward though!