TempestShadow;7938 Wrote:Personally, I'd prefer to leave the war going for at least another few months. I do however recognize that my given reasoning of spiting everyone who said it'd only last a year isn't the greatest 
In regards to Osiris, I think I'm safe in saying that Osiris will probably go with us whichever way we decide, though it'd be better to work out a joint announcement if we were to end it I think. Repealing our treaty with Osiris over this would be idiotic. It's a standard treaty with no special provisions about the NPO.
In regards to the APC treaty, I maintain that it's a good step in-between war (extremely rare) and proscriptions (relatively common) on a sort of staircase of relations. I'm sure we'll probably end up repealing it within the year, but I don't think it should be done with this. Preferably after a change in Emperor (or two changes), though I understand my long-view take on when deescalations should occur isn't the most accepted. Therefor, we shouldn't repeal it, at least not right now.
If we end the war, maintaining a hostile posture towards the NPO shouldn't last in the long term. It seems a logical step to remove the proscription as any potential threats can be voted out by the existing powers of the CLS.
As for Osiris, I made that hypothetical scenario as no one had informed me there was any discussion over it with anyone with Osiris. If Lazarus can leave the war without any repercussions from Osiris, that would be ideal. But a continued participation with APC isn't realistic if we declare peace, as it is a hostile treaty targeting the NPO, and you can be sure that a future administration will at some point repeal the treaty as relations with the NPO improve, and hostile policy becomes less and less justifiable and supported among Lazarenes.
I think the argument that we can end the war and still remain hostile with the NPO relies on the same logic that established the war in the first place, though without a war and with the alleged requirements for peace fulfilled, it becames a stance on very fragile grounds.
And by fragile grounds, a few arguments could be brought up:
1. The NPO infiltrated us in the past, is an argument that relies on a continual and present threat, which we admit doesn't exist by declaring peace. It relies upon paranoia about the NPO to continue on after a war has ended, as there is no evidence the current or future NPO intends to do this, and they publicly state they do not.
2. The NPO is "evil" or "unethical" is again relying on past behavior, and while the past regime in the NPO did unacceptable things, to argue the current one does is an appeal to emotion built on past offenses and not the current NPO.
3. Arguing the NPO never did everything we wanted is another one, which relies on an unrealistic goal of NPO being toppled being achieved, which by declaring peace we reject as a realistic goal.
If we take the position that peace with the NPO is possible by ending the war, there is no reason to treat a new Emperor who had nothing to do with Task Force Lazarus with the same hostility as we did the last Emperor, and instead it would make sense to establish some diplomatic contact through an embassy or other method.
There are two ways to achieve a distance from the NPO. Either a perpetual war or the basic diplomatic contact to maintain peace without a hostile policy towards the NPO.
Peaceful diplomatic relations with the NPO by no means opening the floodgates to hypothetical infiltrators, though realistically Lazarus can maintain a war and not attack the NPO directly, which is essentially the current status quo. And if we end the war, having some diplomatic contact with the NPO is the most reasonable step after ending a war with them, which the APC treaty bars us from.
