Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Emphatic

It was a warm night, but apparently not warm enough to allow the undead the energy to muster up and attack us. More than a few have been seen wandering around, but the New Breed are conspicuous by their absence. Probably off feeding on easier prey than the folks around here; they've learned to pick their battles with us. 

The UAS have taken another community in the west. This group was small and unknown to us, and from what we've heard so far every man, woman, and child was taken alive. The place is apparently undamaged but empty as nearly every other town in the world, except for recent signs of habitation. I'm sure the visual of community completely devoid of the people who live there was intended to be intimidating. The UAS wants to project an aura of strength, and this...I hesitate to call it an attack...this action seems to have done the job. There are a lot of people in the west worried they'll be next. Can't blame them. 

They're fighting, the western groups, and many of them are asking us to join them. We explain again and again that we can't be drawn into a war, and they come back each time with new lists of reasons why we should. The sad fact is that we don't need a lot of convincing; we know we should. They're being attacked unjustly and for no other reason than someone seeking control over their land and people. Declaring war with the UAS and instigating open conflict would be the right thing to do. It's just not the best thing to do for the Union. 

Yeah, we should be doing something to help other than offering words of encouragement and advice, but ultimately our leadership is responsible for the safety and well-being of our citizens. Principles are great things, but stepping between a bully and a victim, while satisfying and maybe even self-serving to a degree, is a great way to end up bleeding. And it doesn't teach the victim to stand up for itself. 

I mean, look: the west has twice the people the Union has at the very least. They're are enough police stations, military bases, and gun shops in those states to arm every one of them so heavily that their soldiers couldn't walk under the weight of all the weapons. Hell, probably that three times over. They aren't defenseless or short in numbers. 

What they lack is driving cohesion. They've made a good start by forming unified groups of defenders, but there's a lot of territory to cover. They have to rely on themselves, because even if we did help, how could they know we'd be able to a second time?

Not that we really can do much good. The distance between our groups is vast, and anyone we'd send would have to take insanely long routes to get there because of the UAS land-grab. No supply lines would be possible, no easy communication with the Union when in the field. Basically we'd be sending people to a danger zone with conditions as against them as possible. And us sending enough bodies to thwart the UAS would strip essential protection from much of the Union. It's just not a thing we're equipped to handle. 

So, to all of you in the west who are emphatically asking us to start a war on your behalf: I'm sorry. You know we want to do everything we can, and by any reasonable measure, we are. What we can do for you is offer advice and knowledge. That's the limit. 

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