[-Norbert-]

That depends on how accurate the reports sent back home are. If they tell about the cooperation between the Indus and Arethusa to save the Presejet, before telling about the destruction of the Deimos, then I doubt it will have any negative impact.
And with the Vasudans watching and recording the whole thing, I don't think the Terran Assembly can get away with an outright lie in this instance.

On that topic: Does anyone know what happened to the Argo that surrendered? Where they taken prisoner, or where they allowed to hitch a ride back home on the Presedjet?

Negative for who?

It would have a MASSIVELY negative effect for the UEF, and  positive one for the GTVA

"Captain Price and his crew valiantly worked to save the Psedjet, but were to zealous in their concern for their allied Vasudans. They agreed to a truce with UEF forces that offered to help the Vasudans as well - Before the UEF ambushed and destroyed them on their humanitarian mission."

^ GTVA public now has a tangible reason to hate the UEF. They are turncoats. They ambush under flag of truce. True or not, the GTVA can spin it as the UEF are evil, evil people who massacred an innocent crew. Remember the tevs have complete and total control of information dissemination outside of Sol. No one would ever know it was an accident.

Just a little problem with that. To ambush someone you have to know they are there. But thanks to the Arethusas jamming, the Indus was unable to call in reinforcements. I don't think the Vasudans would stand for such a twisting of the truth.

The Vasudans at this point think that the attack on the Pesedjet was part of a Fed ploy to divide the GTVA, remember? Steele hooked them with a lie that damns the UEF even more than the destruction of the Arethusa. It's why there's a Vasudan destroyer camped out at the node now.

"At this point"... which point? After the assasination, yes. But there was plenty of time before that, in which the Vasudans weren't yet blinded by Steels lies and manipulations, in which they would have acted accordingly.

Either way I doubt that incident, or anything else, will hit the local GTVA newsbroadcasts, before the end of the war. If they keep completely silent about the war and then bring a single story discrediting the UEF, just to go silent again afterwards, it smells far too much of propaganda to risk sending it.

[Mars]

I personally came away from that mission enraged at the UEF - I am not objective in the least, but I am human.

If someone who 'witnessed' the mission 'first hand' can see the situation that way, it can certainly be portrayed even more badly for the UEF.

[Drogoth]

My point wasn't to equate 9/11 with WiH tactics on either side, my point was to illustrate the rage that a war crime would engender, at least in the short term. As I said, I still believe the circumstances around the Arethusa's destruction will reinforce popular support for the war, not weaken it.

Most of the opponents the US has fought since World War I committed war crimes constantly. Do you see mass outpourings of rage every time they kill a journalist or medic?

"Turncoats" doesn't even begin to make sense. Even under a flag of truce the UEF are still enemies to the GTVA, even if they've supposedly put aside their arms for a meeting. Enemy combatants doing dirty business isn't going to seriously shock anyone. It happens in every war, on every side.

"Complete control of information dissemination" is pretty lol too. You do realize that the servicemembers who have served there, as well as the civilian contractors who tag along on every expeditionary force doing jobs that the GTVA would rather not waste military personnel on, would be perfectly capable of making their own views heard, right? They have their own brains and their own eyes, and some of them might not agree with the official propaganda. Even if people risk going to prison for it, other perspectives of the war will leak out. If any sympathetic Tevs end up speaking with UEF prisoners, people in the GTVA could end up hearing some of the UEF's side as well. Wars are not laboratory experiments; there are many things that happen that you cannot control.

The US also has a habit of fighting puny enemies that have standard operation policy of Guerrilla warfare. One war crime among many doesn't make headlines though. What would happen if the US was fighting Russia and the Russians called a truce and then blew up a US Carrier? Would Americans be outraged? I think so.

[-Norbert-]

Yes sure, but that is hardly the situation of that mission.
It wasn't the UEF (or in your scenario the russians) who called the truth. It was a single ship that went into truce with a single other ship and due to the jamming, neither high command was aware of that truce.
And the Arethusa returning fire wasn't helping either. Sure it's only a natural reaction to return fire, when you get shot, but if they had not shot back, the Nara might have reacted to the Indus' and Presedgets called to cease fire.
It was all a very unfortunate chain of events, where half of the thigns that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. With hindsight it's easy to point out what they could have done differently, but I in the situations they were in, the decisions of everyone do make sense, which makes it all the more tragic.

I personally came away from that mission enraged at the UEF - I am not objective in the least, but I am human.

If someone who 'witnessed' the mission 'first hand' can see the situation that way, it can certainly be portrayed even more badly for the UEF.

So because of the mistake of a single person (the captain of the Narayana) you hate the entire UEF?
But can you really blame him. The Indus wsn't authorized to initiate a cease fire with GTA ships and whenever GTVA ships came in contact with UEF ships, they tried their best to blow the **** out of them without mercy and often enough without warning too.
When you see someone who tried to kill you several times, do you take the time to check wether he aiming a weapon at you, before you attack?

[Drogoth]

Just because it was a tragic accident doesn't mean that's how the tevs will play it to their own populace in the propaganda mill.

[QuakeIV]

I don't see how they could make a very big deal out of a single corvette going down.  As Norbert pointed out its not like it was a large scale ceasefire either.  A united states aircraft carrier going down would be like one of the GTVA destroyers getting blown up.  It wouldn't be crippling but it would piss people off a lot more than a corvette.

It could be pretty rich propoganda but I doubt it would be taken all that seriously.  A Deimos was blown up.  Again.  So ****ing what.

[Drogoth]

Circumstances of the destruction are a lot more useful for propaganda then the destruction itself in the Arethusa's case.

[QuakeIV]

It might make the propaganda more potent, however I still don't think people would care overmuch.  It would certainly generate some upset people but its unlikely that it would bolster support for the whole war.  Again corvettes aren't that big a deal.  People will only have a limited concern for what happens to them.  I'd guess the upset would be roughly analogous to three or so brigades of infantry doing something similar to eachother. 

A few thousand people died to treachery in an isolated incident.  This is so unexpected in a full scale war.

If this was happening right and left people might care a bit more, but as has also been pointed nobody gives a crap if the enemy plays fair anyways.