tlb wrote:Jonathan_S wrote:But the question is what standard are they holding themselves to - and how high to they assess the risk of a stray missile or large scale debris?
Before the fall of the League the standard most governments seemed to hold their navies to is they shall undertake no action that could give OFS or the League any possible excuse to intervene against them under even the most wildly broad and expansive interpretation of the Edict.
Basically to assume the League is just itching for any excuse to take over -- and avoid any risk of giving them that excuse.
That's far more restrictive than just honoring the letter, or even the spirit, or the Edict.
Under the letter, and even the spirit, of the Edict using civilian populations in an attempt to provide human shields around military forces forfeits those civilian's protection under the Edict -- at least as far as collateral damage resulting from WMD attacks on those military forces. So, putting forts in low orbit around a planet in the hope of discouraging missiles from firing at them just means that the attacking force is no longer liable for collateral damage that might result from targeting and engaging those forts.
Now the GA might well hold themselves to an even higher standard of minimizing collateral civilian casualties. Though given the accuracy and range of Apollo they might also be able to engage low orbit forts with almost no concern about a stray missile hitting the planet (though debris from damaged forts might still be a concern)
I am willing to accept this, but you seemed to be saying earlier that there no longer was a moral or legal standard the GA needed to apply; just a tactical standard, since the Malign was the enemy and the Edict was no longer enforced. I do not expect the Grand Alliance to only maintain minimum standards.
There is still a problem with using Apollo to attack low level forts; it is best for a single ship to only attack those forts that are seen to the side of the planet (as opposed to those where the planet is seen behind the fort), because then the missile flight and the laser head do not have the planet as a back stop. Actually the ideal weapon to attack the forts is to have the GA make their own version of the graser torpedo; the recon drone body can get close and the micro fusion reactor can power multiple shots for the biggest graser that can be mounted.
I didn't intend to imply that Manticore or the Grand Alliance would have no moral or legal restrictions against causing mass civilian death.
Merely that fear of even the slightest risk of inadvertently causing that might not allow their enemies to protect their defenses using the civilan population as human shields. I'd still expect the GA's military codes of justice and rules of engagement to require them to do whatever possible to reasonably reduce the chance of mass civilian collateral damage -- just maybe not to the point of refusing to engage defenses hiding behind civilians. But they'd still pick attack methods that would try to minimize casualties to the civilians despite the fact that using them as human shields removed much of their protections.
However I was also assuming that Apollo is long enough ranged and accurate enough that launches against forts could fly a 'dogleg' course so that, even if the fort was in-line between the launching ship and the planet, the missiles' terminal approach vectors would be angled clear of the planet.
