[Discussion] War with the NPO

[Cormac]

I've already made my opinion well known on Discord and on this forum, so I'm not going to post a new wall of text about it -- not that anyone else shouldn't have, because all of these posts have been very articulate and have furthered the discussion. I appreciate all of you for putting the effort into them.

What I will do is repost what I've already posted on this forum (here), because not everyone may have seen it, and it sums up my position well:
 

I think we should do one of two things:

1) We should lodge a formal diplomatic protest, as New Rogernomics has said is in the works, but it should include clear demands from the NPO similar in nature to Osiris' demands here (though not necessarily similar in detail - we should decide our own demands). In that statement, it should be made clear that if the NPO doesn't meet said demands, the Delegate will request from the Assembly a declaration of war. And then if the NPO doesn't meet our demands, we should declare war.

2) We should just skip all that and declare war, because they're not going to meet our demands.

Under no circumstances should we simply not declare war. Lazarus is the most wronged party here. The NPO has attacked us three times:

1. Once, during the NLO coup;
2. Twice, with Task Force Lazarus, which deliberately provoked a civil war;
3. Three times, with Feux posing as Adytus, trying to seize Lazarus' Delegacy, no doubt for NLO 2.0.

Lazarus simply can't tolerate this. Lazarus has to stop just taking this stuff and being kicked around. Lazarus has to recognize that the NPO is at war with us and has been at war with us for years, and we have to respond by acknowledging their war and declaring war ourselves. Other regions are going to be looking to see how we respond, because we're the most aggrieved party. We have to stand up for ourselves instead of expecting others to stand up for us. We have to stop talking about recovering and decide to be recovered. We have to tell the NPO and anyone else who would bully Lazarus again in the future that we're not going to take it anymore. In the process, we will gain the respect of former allies looking to see what we're made of, as well as the respect of new friends. If we stand up, others will stand with us. So let's stand up and fight for this region, because it's about damn time somebody fights for it.

I remain strongly supportive of war, as the only option for Lazarus that is dignified and would send a clear message that we are standing up for ourselves, and we are not going to tolerate this treatment from the NPO or anyone else in the future. I think it's a message that Lazarus badly needs to send. I think if we don't communicate this message loudly and clearly now, there will be more like Task Force Lazarus, by the NPO and by others, in the future. We need to draw a line.