Sandra Tamarin:
"'It seems the worst amateurs are in the Commonwealth Admiralty.'
"They've never had to fight a war. Skills, doctrine, the military style of thinking evaporated generations ago.
"Such things must needs be relearned in the time that is upon us." (p. 118)
So the Baburites have the same effect on the Solar Commonwealth as the kzinti have on the UN? (I refer, of course, to Poul Anderson's Technic History and to Larry Niven's Known Space History.)
In James Blish's Cities In Flight, the Colonials must fight the Vegan Tyranny without any help from Earth.
In two other future history series, Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium and CJ Cherryh's Alliance-Union, mankind exports war without needing to find any extra-solar aliens to fight.
I doubt that we will go out into the galaxy and find anything remotely resembling ourselves.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That is one of the problems with long periods of peace: nations can get slack and rusty in the kinds of skills and knowledge needed for fighting a war effectively. So needless blunders are made and disasters endured. The US certainly learned that, the hard way, more than once!
Wars occur because politicians and diplomats failed to resolve the problems and disputes which can lead to them. So, I'm not surprised by the wars seen in Pournelle's Co-Dominium timeline. I recall Col. Falkenberg saying or thinking more than once that all he could really do was buy time for something better to be set up.
I agree, if we ever get out into the galaxy, whatever is found is not likely to be what our science fiction has speculated about. Or, it might be, in some ways!
I don't mean to nag, but I left another note in the combox to my revised version of the Technic Civilization Chronology.
Happy New Year! Sean
Sean,
I no longer receive email notifications of comments in blogs and very rarely check the other blogs but I will look now.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I wondered. But I didn't want to seem to be nagging. Thanks!
Happy New Year! Sean
Sean,
I have responded and taken action on the other blog.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Many thanks! I will be going to take a look there.
Happy New Year! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Been to the other blog, where we have been fixing up my Chronology article. Yes, you made the right corrections I asked for. And I left another comment there.
Happy New Year! Sean
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