CX wrote:I have to disagree quite emphatically with you. I know this is the typical fan thing, but Starfleet is a military, even if it's an inept one and very poorly presented. A military force would take on exploration and diplomatic functions before some civilian organization would take on military roles, because while there is historical precedence for the former, the latter is frankly pretty frakked up, and I have never understood the fan need for something so implausible. In the day of sail, military vessels explored the world's oceans, and even today the military still does a lot of research and exploration. There's more to the military than the tip of the spear, and you have no idea how much it irritates me for people to reduce the military to that. If you look at everything Starfleet has done on the different shows and movies, the modern military already does the vast majority of it.
Good points, but I still disagree. Clearly you seem irritated, at least that's the impression you give. Not my intent, by the way. But I think you missed my point, or perhaps I didn't state it clearly enough. My point is that at the time of ENTERPRISE, Starfleet was NOT designed to be a military (and no one associated with Starfleet thinks of it as a military), even though it shares many organizational aspects of a military. I certainly believe that by Kirk's time, Starfleet IS for all practical purposes a military organization, especially once the MACOs have been absorbed by Starfleet. But to me, the UESPA of Archer's day is the near-future equivilant of NASA, ESA, NASDA and Roskosmos combined into a global civilian-based space agency. NASA today, is NOT a military organization, even though many of its astronauts (and even some of its leaders) come out of the military, still hold their rank and the actual crews are designed around the military command structure. NASA is a government-run, civilian space exploration agency. It seems to me that the goal of the UESPA was basically the same as NASA: To further human exploration into deep space by developing, operating and supporting advanced warp-capable starships. The military component at the time was considered as an afterthought only. Keep in mind, we know that Reed almost joined the Navy at one point before Starfleet, so there ARE still traditional military services on Earth at the time (the MACOs would be another, and we can presume there are more). Archer himself even says that he disagreed with the idea of arming Enterprise at first. It was only after all the hostile encounters that he appreciated the need to carry weapon systems, but he still regrets it. So I agree with you that Starfleet, later, IS the military arm of the UFP. Without doubt. But in Archer's time, it's just not there yet (the evolution is only just beginning, catalyzed by the Xindi attack and the impending Romulan War), which impacts the way Archer commands his ship. This, in part, helps to explain why Archer is lax with Reed and T'Pol when they return from having stolen a shuttle. On a similar note, I see a number of complaints about how Hernandez and Archer don't make proper tactical decisions in this book, and again, I believe it's because they don't have the military mind-set or training that later Starship Captains do. I don't think either of them ever went to war college or studied military tactics during their time at Starfleet. I'd bet their training was focused almost exclusively on science, alien cultures, space flight ops, engineering and diplomacy, not the use of force. They thought of themselves as explorers first and foremost, and the need to adopt military tactical training came later. In the case of Archer and Hernandez, I would argue, it was mostly on-the-job training. We, all of us as Star Trek fans, have 35 years of familiarity with Starfleet as the military arm of the UFP. But the whole point of Enterprise is that the Starfleet of Archer's time is NOT the same as we see it later. We're seeing the evolution of Starfleet from what it started out as, into what we know it will become. And my belief if that Starfleet, circa 2155, is only just starting to think of itself as a military force tasked with defending Earth and its allies - and it's been forced into that role by external events. I mean, you'd THINK, if they fully appreciated their role as an Earth defense force, they'd have built more than just 2 or 3 NX class starships. Because they're about to face a war with the Romulans with Enterprise, Columbia and Challenger, backed by an unknown number of Intrepid class ships. Not exactly an impressive fighting force.
Starfleet and the UESPA, from their founding up until the Xindi attack, just never considered themselves a true military organization tasked with Earth defense or the projection of force of any kind. THAT is my point. And if you accept that premise, the actions of Starfleet's leadership and Archer and Hernandez, both in the series and these books, make a whole lot more sense.
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