Sigs wrote:In cutworm, the Manticore alliance destroyed every bit of orbital industry not just the military industry and warships. Killing civilians intentionally is no go, but blowing up civilian industry very much is. The MA went after civilian infrastructure and industry to cause economic pain for the Republic. The GA destroyed all industry in Sol not just those that had direct and immediate military purpose.
Indeed, and as RFC has ruled, that was acceptable war practice. And on one hand, I agree that the League and particularly Sol needed some form of punishment. To come out of the war with no hardship for the population would send the wrong message. The population let the bureaucrats and corrupt officials take control of the government and thus tacitly abided by the Operation Buccaneer and Parthian Shot option. They needed a reminder that war is not without consequence.
On the other hand, I reserve my judgement. You CANNOT destroy the food-production sources and you cannot relocate the people living on space habitats to the surface in any reasonable time, if ever at all. Moreover, destroying the industry that supports those food-production sources can be a humanitarian crisis in the medium term, because the equipment is wearing down all the time and in need of constant maintenance and replacement. There's only so much maintenance that can be deferred.
The saving grace for the Sol is that interstellar trade is cheap enough that most of what that industry would need can be imported from elsewhere that was not affected.