GTVA
1) The original plan was blasted to pieces by the 14th's unexpected journey into an alternative reality and subsequent actions on arriving in Sol which forced a war that Ironically the GTVA was no longer prepared for. Also while there are strikes against infrastructure it is generally targeted (though there are incidents that could be taken to be against this). As for UEF culture they *want* to wipe it out because of its predominately pacifistic nature which they perceive would weaken the GTVA resolve during the next Shivan encounter.
I know the plan got screwed up. However, the original plan was only desirable/viable if the war could be won quickly and decisively, without causing major damage to Sol's infrastructure/industry or killing a lot of people. That's from the "mouths" of the Security Council/High Command. Now, 18 months into the war, many thousands are dead (civilians included), the GTVA has to resort to total war to win, they're making the entirety of Sol's population
hate the GTVA, they're destroying Sol's infrastructure and industry, and spending exorbitant amounts of money and resources to win a war that destroys the very things they started the war to preserve.
And it's not a justifiable case of "gone too far to turn back now": continuing on the current path only makes things worse.
As for the UEF's culture--this is probably the most important point behind the war. The GTVA High Command saw the Ubuntu culture as a huge threat to the GTVA (due to the perceived likelihood of it spreading and dominating the existing GTVA culture) because (according to them) they are pacifistic, averse to the military, and spent relatively little on the military. Well, 18 months into the war, the UEF is holding its own against the GTVA despite allocating massive resources to some secret project and a commitment to a defensive war until a diplomatic solution can be found. It was only when the GTVA sent in a new battlegroup of its most advanced ships and some of its best officers--
and resorted to total war--that they gained a major victory. Clearly, if the Ubuntu culture was pacifistic, weak on defense, and anti-military, the UEF wouldn't have even lasted 6 months, let alone 18+ (and still going). Further, the UEF turned economic collapse into a huge socio-economic boom with techniques and methodologies that could be applied almost anywhere, and they are still pretty damn good at war.
They should know by now that the Ubuntu culture is, for the most part, exactly what the terran side of the GTVA has needed all along--a unified culture that motivated and comforted humanity, rather than a nihilistic culture driven by fear and loss.
That's not to say that it would be fine and dandy for the GTVA to adopt the UEF's culture and system wholesale--this is where negotiations an diplomacy comes in, and the Second Shivan Incursion is close to a be-all-end-all argument about the necessity of a strong, well prepared and steadily advancing military. There's a lot of effective middle ground to be found here, if only the GTVA High Command cared to think about it for a few seconds.
2) Logistics transit limitations imposed by the node dictate what forces the GTVA can deploy, not to mention security implications in the home systems.
Sort of; the logistics issue is more along the lines of supporting a certain level of forces for an extended period of time, rather than the node physically being incapable of holding X amount of ships traveling through it at a certain rate. This means that the GTVA should be able to send in a force of about four destroyers (and their escorts) within a few days, and have the entire Sol invasion force conduct a massive assault to overwhelm and effectively defeat the UEF in a single month (or less).
As for the security of the home systems--it's a much bigger security risk to have several battlegroups off fighting a resource-intensive war for years than it is to have a few less destroyer groups in your systems for a few weeks. If it's a big enough problem where you need all of your destroyers in all of your systems throughout the entire potential conflict with the Shivans, you've already lost, really. Or the Shivans somehow found a dozen new jump nodes linked to a dozen GTVA systems and it all came together in the same few week span.
3)/4) see last part of answer 1) Ubuntu is seen as a cultural threat that could undermine GTVA readiness for the next shivan war. The UEF have held on so long due to the poor performance of the GTVA in the early months which gave the UEF time to regroup.
You're correct in that the Ubuntu culture was seen as a threat to GTVA's readiness in the next potential Shivan incursion. However, emphasis on the
was. The UEF has demonstrated quite clearly that their military readiness was not compromised by their culture, even when the system was completely isolated from all jump nodes and the biggest threat was the freaking Gaian Effort.
The UEF didn't hold on so long because the GTVA screwed up in the first 17 months, they held on because their military and personnel were strong enough and smart enough to hold their own against the GTVA. Sure, they had advantages in that a decent amount of their technical advantages were because they only had to operate in Sol, where logistics was easy. But while the GTVA was initially restricted from total war, the UEF was also restricted from offensive actions and escalation of the war--because they thought that, surely, the war was sparked from some kind of misunderstanding or matter that could be resolved diplomatically. Turns out the GTVA High Command is just selectively stupid and insane.
Even after the GTVA resorted to total war, the UEF is still managing to hold their own for weeks/months, which says quite a lot about how wrong the High Command's assessment of the Ubuntu culture and its effects was/is. At this point, it's vastly preferable for both sides, not to mention far "cheaper", to end the war through diplomatic means and achieve a middle ground that would benefit them both a lot more than outright victory.
If the GTVA's culture is nihilistic, bitter, and lacking something to believe in and hope for, invading the figurative "promised land" and wrecking it with total war is a
terrible course of action. That's pure nihilism fuel right there, and it sure as hell isn't doing the shaky terran economy any favors. It's the kind of thing where you "win", stand on top of the ruins, and ask yourself "now what?", only to realize that you spent 18 years opening the doorway to the promised land...so that you could invade and wreck it. Oh, and almost everyone in it hates you now. Good luck with that! :|
UEF
1) from what we see in WiH the majority of resources is either going into the project or maintaining the current fleet, by the end of WiH the UEF only have months worth of material left to maintain their fleet due to the logistics damage inflicted by the GTVA
Sort of. IIRC, it was a year, not two months, and the 1-year figure was based on the UEF fleet being at the same level, which they thought was unlikely to be the case a year from then.
...and that's also part of my point, though: the massive amount of resources being devoted (and transported, if the Agincourt thing is any indication) to this project makes maintaining total secrecy rather unrealistic. How could Calder and Netreba--two of the three top military commanders in the entire UEF--not have any idea what this project was?
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2) deploying a Solaris would be highly risky, by doing so you pin it in place until it's drives recharge, in which time a GTVA HK force can strike against the ship, close up to maximize the advantage of beams.
It's not as risky as you might think. Unless its entire craft complement is somewhere else, an HK team would not be nearly enough to take a Solaris down--if its massive craft screen doesn't disable the beam cannons on the shock-jump corvettes, the numerous gatling railguns designed to do exactly that effectively probably will. Even then, the Solaris is a highly durable ship even by GTVA standards. Imagine if it carried some of those heavy or fleet bombers within its fighter bay--I'd be more concerned for the HK team.
Of course, you'd still only deploy a Solaris (when not an emergency) when you felt confident that the GTVA didn't have a major strikeforce (as in, more than an HK team) on Jump-5 standby.
3) to keep it secret, leaks could come from any source so you keep a war winning project under wraps as much as possible
I understand that completely; I'm referring to the implications that Netreba and Calder either don't have any idea what the project is or only have a slight idea. Militarily speaking, that's a terrible, terrible idea, as you're deliberately keeping your top military commanders in the dark about a mysterious project that's diverting a huge portion of the UEF's resources away from military matters. So if this project is (or can be) a superweapon of some kind, that's a major element they couldn't plan a strategy around. Or if the project won't need as much resources in two months, that's another major factor that the military can't plan for.
4) the council of elders basically order a defensive posture, iirc the second and third work together to some degree but the first is keeping itself for this secret project and detering the GTVA from orbiting Earth.
All three fleets used to work together until Netreba and Calder got fed up and demanded autonomy. As for deterring the GTVA from taking Earth--it's one system. While in normal-space terms it's huge, in subspace terms, it's tiny. In other words, if the GTVA wanted to put a corvette or destroyer in Earth orbit and threaten orbital bombardment unless you surrender, there is
nothing you can do about it. Seriously, all you'd have to do is jump to a point in Earth orbit that isn't within a dozen kilometers of a force bigger than a frigate. Earth is a very big place. Earth orbit is even bigger. I don't think I need to do the math, here. The UEF could just call the bluff, and if the GTVA actually went and did it, well...congrats GTVA, you've become mass murderers of civilians, you've made the entire population of Sol hate you, and you've made the UEF determined and desperate enough to defeat you at any cost. Oh, and good luck justifying that one to the people back home. You'll have people comparing the Raynor/Titan to the Lucifer glassing Vasuda Prime in
no time flat.Thus, you just need to protect (with fleet assets) the important installations in Earth orbit, which doesn't require the entire (or even 90%) of the First Fleet, 24/7.
5) the GTVA had them committed to defending key targets, there was not the forces available for an overwhelming response
Not really; at that point the blitz had long passed its peak and most of the GTVA ships in Sol had fallen back to lick their wounds and regroup. If diverting a couple frigates (or even a Solaris for just a few minutes...) ensures a kill on a GTVA destroyer (and potentially its escorts), that is absolutely worth the (very temporary) risk.
general
1) give a terrorist support and they are yours until ideology conflicts are forced or someone else helps them more. Also remember the Gaians have been at war with the UEF for a while at this point, it's more of an alliance of convenience than of ideology.
...and the ideology of the GE completely conflicts with the ideology of the GTVA. Not to mention the fact that the GTVA would clearly love for the GE to cease to exist as soon as they were no longer useful (and you could spare the effort for it). And the GTVA is a much bigger threat to the GE than the UEF, in more ways than one.
Even for an alliance of convenience, it's not very convenient if you're helping a faction that wants you dead/defunct, is far more of a threat to you than the UEF, is willing to resort to far harsher methods to attack you, and would know a lot about your vulnerabilities, capabilities, and bases as a result of working with them. If the UEF wins, they'll be far harsher and more aggressive against you for helping the invading army, and if the GTVA wins, they will be much more willing and able to wipe you out than the UEF, and they know a lot about you (including where to hit you). It's something of a no-win deal.
Put bluntly if the Russians had gotten control of Sol the GTVA would be totally boned.
...no, Sol would be even easier to defeat. Their economy would be in shambles, they'd have tons of discontent and groups wanting to break away, and the culture wouldn't spread. Heck, you'd more likely have groups defecting to the GTVA than destroy their own population and/or infrastructure to deny it to an enemy that would give you a much better future and protection.
