[-Norbert-]

The GTA could always claim that the two ships (as far as I remember on the Labouchere and one of the Anemoi defected) were captured by the UEF. And if crewmemebers somehow turned up, the GTA could always claim that after being captured, those people were brainwashed into believing that they defected willingly.

And if they started to talk about the Vishnans and parallel universes, they'd simply be declared insane and put into an asylum for the forseeable future.

Thus I don't think that the two defected ships are too much of a problem. Actually they are probably the smaller problem compared to the ones that came back. Because the crews that defected are completely cut off from GTVA space. The returning crews on the other hand can contain "hidden turncoats" who just didn't reveal themselves yet, like Admiral Carey, which are far more of a threat than those people isolated in Sol.

[Drogoth]

On the topic of leaking evidence (like the assassination) I remember awhile back discussing the possibility that it wasn't the tevs, but some other faction of the UEF. I bring this up only because Steele could easily just shrug that kind of evidence off and say he was being framed.

[-Norbert-]

No need to put that in conditions, since that's exactly what he did. Only it's toward the Vasudans rather than the civilians back at home.

[Torchwood]

In all seriousness, I do think that civil unrest is the only thing that could result in a UEF victory. Because it sure isn't going to be materiel exhaustion - unless they had some kind of fleet-killing superweapon (besides Alpha 1, that is), but that would not be a very Ubuntu thing to do... not to mention leaving humanity exposed to the Shivans.

But the fluff documents said precisely that the GTVA fears Ubuntu because it is seductive - people would be more inclined to side with the utopian group, even though the military analysts believe this kind of ideology is not sustainable in the face of hostile genocidal aliens outside of Sol. Even without the alien meddling, this is reason enough for them to engineer Ubuntu away, before it causes widespread revolts. Case in point - first official contact with the UEF resulted in a wave of mass desertions.

That being said, we do not know about average Joe Tev civlian's enthusiasm regarding this war, but several years of war without progress can take a toll. Even in victorious battles, some of the own people die, and grieving family is left with corpses. And in large-scale meat grinders and indecisive battles, it's even worse. The Tevs intially were counting on Fed morale breaking before theirs, having the advantage of being more battle-hardened. Of course, Steele has a new strategy altogether... given his rank, it's possible that he plans on eliminating Ubuntu directly, by taking out the entire think tank and its core backers.

[AtomicClucker]

I can imagine that "enthusiasm" a slight parallel between 'Nam and Iraq peaceniks, but the reality of BPverse establsihes that the GTVA is sitting on a potential powderkeg regardless.