[Discussion] War with the NPO

[Atlantica]

I thank Imki for bringing this critical matter up for debate and vote by the Assembly. By now, I presume most of y'all are aware of my support for war, and I fully intend on voting accordingly in the Assembly. Moreover, I fully reiterate the potential benefits of war Imki listed (and will repost the five reasons for war I posted earlier on the forums and on Discord for everyone's convenience; these five reasons in many ways overlap with the reasons Imki listed), while in regards to the potential drawbacks, I don't necessarily see how it's problematic.

Firstly, regarding the stability argument, I don't see how that would negatively be impacted; I, for one, consider it dubious that the NPO wouldn't have engaged in any machinations, as Imki's post describes them. Certainly, there is a lack of evidence the NPO has done so, but lack of knowledge shouldn't be assumed as a ceasing of hostilities; the fact that we and Osiris had absolutely no idea about the level of subversion itself until a couple of weeks ago testifies to this critical fact; moreover, Pergamon's well-documented hostility towards Lazarus, coupled with Cormac's demonstration that the NPO is doing little to authentically reform itself internally, not to mention historical record, makes me suspicious that the NPO hasn't already engaged in some level of subversion of Lazarus, or at least that a declaration of war wouldn't exacerbate NPO efforts. The logs themselves were also presumably leaked by figures who are no longer linked to the NPO (Block is a good example, and the almost-certain leaker Ark is another good one) and therefore have nothing to lose politically; they were also mostly leakings of happenings that occurred quite some time ago and before the countercoup.

In regards to the military/alignment aspect of destabilization, I don't think that's a problem; as far as I can tell, there's a broad consensus to Neutrality, ergo having a military shouldn't cause internal conflicts in the region. Besides, I think that war could serve to heal the wounds of the Civil War a great bit, as it could unite both major Lazarene factions against the NPO (indeed, it's already started to do that).

I also don't think that weariness is too significant a concern. First and foremost, the potential conflict we may be getting involved with is an external conflict, not an internal one; there won't be the same emotional attachment tied to it as there was in the Civil War, ergo there'll be a reduced chance of burnout. Second, it's important to remember that war, in this specific case, is equally as symbolic as it is practical, given that (A): It clearly shows Lazarus, the most-aggrieved of the aggrieved regions, is not pursuing a path of comparative moderation in regards to the NPO, an example less-aggrieved parties could follow, (B): Lazarus' geopolitical, media, and military capacity is significantly less than that of co-belligerents such as TBH and Europeia, ergo it's reasonable to assume it won't wage the bulk of the war effort.

In regards to the final question - that of identity - I don't think it's necessarily an either/or decision if we choose to pursue war. As Imki's post itself noted, war very much has the potential of rallying citizens and inspiring patriotic activity - activity that could be utilized for both external and internal purposes; indeed, I could even see the war effort being used to inspire internal development as a kind of self-strengthening thing. Besides, let's be realistic and honest here: although Lazarus has been superbly stable over the past few months (obviously a prerequisite for Lazarene cultural development), and although it's certainly been more active culturally than it has been for quite some time, internal development over the past few months, under peace, been at least somewhat disappointing (and I'll readily take some responsibility for that myself, given that I haven't been particularly active for quite some time). This status quo, as would be continued if we avoided war, isn't ideal; we can use the patriotism of the war to change that.

Finally, here's the repost of the pro-war arguments I made earlier:

The following is a slightly modified argument I made via successive posts in the Discord server, which I've posted below for everyone's convenience:

I disagree with the argument that war should be a last resort in circumstances regarding grievous and hitherto-unknown violations of sovereignty; indeed, war can be a preferable option in numerous circumstances, particularly in Lazarus' circumstances, for the following reasons:

Firstly, in a context such as this one, wherein war against the NPO is the geopolitical reality many regions have chosen to adopt, to do anything less than that makes it look like we are choosing to forge and lead a course of moderation in dealing with the NPO; not quite stuck in the middle between war and alliance (that would be true neutrality), but certainly close to it; and that is an inappropriate response because the actions against Lazarus the NPO perpetrated were not the most moderate, but rather the most extreme, more extreme than even its actions against Osiris.

Secondly, by declaring war, we open to ourselves a large swathe of allies and defenders we do not presently have, by virtue of being co-belligerents with them. This is of significant advantage to our own internal security; furthermore, it need not conflict with our own pluralist and open values, because this war is not a conflict of Independence/Raiderism vs. Defenderism/Francoism, considering XKI/TRR's comparative coolness in dealing with the NPO; it is a conflict of Anti-Francoism vs. Francoism, a wholly reasonable proposition considering Francoism's imperialist propositions.

Thirdly, war has the potential of unifying a hitherto-disparate populace by causing the existential threat to cause people to rally; by unifying the people, it will lead to immense activity. Furthermore, this very much has the possibility of, in our case, causing the creation of an active military; not only a boon in and of itself by virtue of creating activity, but a boon particularly because explicitly pluralist and non-ideological (beyond anti-Francoist) aims would be enabled by the creating circumstances.

Fourthly, and most importantly, this is a pronouncement of our own sovereignty in regards to this threat; not only will it naturally inspire immense vigilance against this threat, it will also be a mere response to acts of aggression by responding in kind.

Fifthly, there's no legitimate reason not to go to war, and to be honest, official, declared war in NS is not the inherent-but-sometimes-necessary evil it is in real life. It is, for the reasons I outlined above, in many cases a very good and positive thing in and of itself; furthermore, it does not really have the negative consequences of real-life war. There are no lives lost, no infrastructure destroyed, etc.; wars are in NationStates as propagandistic as they are militaristic. This opposition to war is a mistaken belief born out of real-life concerns, not out of pragmatic recognition of NSGP realities. The major consequence of war in NS is geopolitical, not material and biological as in real-life; and such geopolitical consequences are (A): Minimal in Lazarus' case because it presently lacks geopolitical allies, and would be compensated for with allies via co-belligerents, and (B): Minimal in any case because NS war does not seriously threaten the safety and security of regions with high Delegate counts (such as Lazarus).