The Dumbest Thing Eddington Ever Did

[Yukaphile]

The Federation caught them red-handed and the Cardassian government was forced to stop that. And Eddington kept escalating the stakes. Really, I HATE Eddington's comments. Sure, maybe as terrorists, you need to kill unarmed civilians, whatever. But then he shrugs, "They're just Cardassians." Proving like it is with Torres and many of the Maquis that it's not just a belief in higher ideals, but a case of out-and-out racism.

[Thebestoftherest]

He likes a lot of lunatics or politicians they alter reality to fit their narrative not alter their narrative to fit reality. To me he basically established he can't be reason down.

[Mecha82]

Being unhinged is part of fighting back with terrorism since terrorism is about spreading fear. Thus terror part in terrorism and Eddington took it to extreme. It doesn't mean that he didn't have point. Both he and Sisko made valid points.

[Yukaphile]

Uh-oh, nope. We see throughout the series a lot of the Cardassians are just as complex and good as anyone else, thus I still don't buy those outside forces are influencing him to act this way. I tend to think more like the Feds. They needed a negotiated peace. Declaring independence to no doubt continue terrorist campaigns against even unarmed Cardassians makes that worse. Even if the Feds were willing to lay down perhaps a bit too much, the series never really shows us how they gave up too much past "just take our word for it." Yeah, the Maquis had sympathetic origins, but they moved past that. Like a lot of extremists do.

[Nealithi]

@Yukaphile

I may hate this comparison. But how many people hated anyone of even German descent during WW2? And how many were automatically lumped in as Nazis? How about Orientals for the pacific campaign?
Clumping a group together and marginalizing them occur in combat to simplify Us vs. Them.
And how do you feel about the Federation giving food, medicine and blankets to civilians?
Or admiral Nechayev seemingly not caring about the colonists but just about the treaty? Not peace nor security, just the treaty. To the point of asking is Sisko was questioning her orders. and calling all the Maquis "The Maquis are a bunch of irresponsible hotheads." To being murdered in their homes. Like they should just lay down and take it.

Eddington had some serious flaws. But the Maquis had a point.

[Yukaphile]

How many? We still do that today, very sadly.

Also, Cal flat-out admitted he wanted revenge. So, I don't tend to trust him. I always got the impression that the government supplying their colonists with weapons had been stopped. That wouldn't stabilize things, sure, and the Federation government did leave them out to dry, but at the same time, we have so little details about what's going on with life in the zone past what we ever seen on screen. Eddington thinks only human lives are worth preserving and given his own hero-complex tendencies, his desire to wanna start a new nation based on his romantic ideals with ancient books, I find his leadership policies questionable. Remember one very important fact. This whole rebellion started with Indians! They were "spiritually connected" to their land and felt very tired with relocation, like has been done so often throughout history against the natives, and so refused to leave. That inspired others. The Federation offered resettlement, which would have been the better move. But once those Indians started it, then other colonies began thinking the same way. All they felt was stupid attachment to their crops and whatever. It's like Data said in "The Ensigns of Command." That those are merely things, and they can be replaced. The Maquis' stubborn refusal to leave when there was an easy escape pod waiting proves why their whole cause was dubious. Why feel attached to a home that's on the edge of hostile space when you can take the next transport out at no cost? It really reminds me of those 15,000 colonists in, again, "The Ensigns of Command," and they were convinced to leave in the end. And in the end, they only made things worse. Drove the Cardassians right into the arms of the Dominion, as Sisko said.

[Nealithi]

How many? We still do that today, very sadly.

Also, Cal flat-out admitted he wanted revenge. So, I don't tend to trust him. I always got the impression that the government supplying their colonists with weapons had been stopped. That wouldn't stabilize things, sure, and the Federation government did leave them out to dry, but at the same time, we have so little details about what's going on with life in the zone past what we ever seen on screen. Eddington thinks only human lives are worth preserving and given his own hero-complex tendencies, his desire to wanna start a new nation based on his romantic ideals with ancient books, I find his leadership policies questionable. Remember one very important fact. This whole rebellion started with Indians! They were "spiritually connected" to their land and felt very tired with relocation, like has been done so often throughout history against the natives, and so refused to leave. That inspired others. The Federation offered resettlement, which would have been the better move. But once those Indians started it, then other colonies began thinking the same way. All they felt was stupid attachment to their crops and whatever. It's like Data said in "The Ensigns of Command." That those are merely things, and they can be replaced. The Maquis' stubborn refusal to leave when there was an easy escape pod waiting proves why their whole cause was dubious. Why feel attached to a home that's on the edge of hostile space when you can take the next transport out at no cost? It really reminds me of those 15,000 colonists in, again, "The Ensigns of Command," and they were convinced to leave in the end. And in the end, they only made things worse. Drove the Cardassians right into the arms of the Dominion, as Sisko said.

Okay so you live in Arizona and built your home and business. There are people crossing the border and harming you. So you should move to Colorado? And while Cal may have been angry. I don't think it was just revenge. And same episodes (I swear I saw/heard this there) the cardassian worlds were boobytrapped. So you will leave your hard built world. Get no resources and get dropped into a 'ready made' area with little to no infrastructure and opening a door might blow up in your face. So why do you not want to leave again?
The Maquis had motivation for what they were doing. The he made it worse line. History is written by the victors. But do you suppose Washington made it worse for people out in the colonies by fighting back well? I think the blaming Eddington for the bolstered cardassians to wipe out the nuisance maquis is scapegoating. The cardassians would have done that even if Eddington never joined the maquis.

Now let's look at a few differences in circumstance between the colony Data saved and the Maquis situation. The colonists on that world had no support, no weapons beyond pitchforks, and lost lives to build a primitive aqueduct. Versus warships in orbit. They have no chance and a treaty that they themselves are violating will prevent Star Fleet intervention on their behalf. The maquis are suffering attacks. They can fight back on a near equal footing. And they would not have been resisting had the cardassians held to the agreement Picard hammered out. Which was let them stay and they will be under cardassian rule. So all output goes to the cardassians. But they wanted cardassians on those worlds and went to wipe people that were supposed to be theirs out.

[Yukaphile]

He flat-out said he wanted revenge. What more do you need? And... the Feds clearly wouldn't resettle them on Cardassian worlds, what the hell are you talking about? They ceded territory to them in an official peace treaty, and people who were offered clear resettlement in a post-scarcity society (that is precisely what the Feds are depicted as being) refused it for "spiritual reasons." That was the basis. Then other people attached to their homes for God knows what reason latch onto that and refuse to leave as well. It always struck me as if they were still bitter over the border skirmishes and wanted more payback. Seriously, given what a hot zone that area was, it's akin to that old man up at Spirit Lake who refused to leave when Mt. Saint Helens was going nuts. I'd gladly jump ship out of a hostile area like that. Also, your metaphors don't hold up that well, once again, when you are dealing with a post-scarcity society. How about the colonists from "The Ensigns of Command?" They were probably resettled painlessly, and they were shown to be stubbornly foolhardy for wanting to keep their homes in the face of literal deaths. And no, you are wrong. Eddington clearly escalated the stakes with terrorist attacks so he could then seize the Cardassian lands for himself, becoming every bit what the other side was about. "We're going to steal your land for ourselves and become an independent nation!" They moved from having sympathetic origins then to just another aggressive, imperialistic power. That was proven when they attached Federation starships, like Sisko pointed out. If they had just moved when that could be accomplished very painlessly with the Federaiton, then none of this would've happened. Why are you so stupidly attached to a hot zone with constant border disputes? That happens, I'm dipping like a guy who won't pay his child-support money, like, I'm out of there!

They did not sign that treaty, btw. And they were also stupidly attached to their land like the Indians were. Yet they gave up when the time came and did the right thing for greater society.

[Admiral X]

It's like Yuka just gets an idea in his head, and ignores anything else that contradicts it.

[Yukaphile]

Care to elaborate on that?