May 10th, 2012
Galley Friend B.D. sends along this colloquy on the economic and socio-political costs/benefits of the “Death Star.” (Remember, “Death Star” is just the pejorative used by the Rebel MSM. It’s really a “Defense Star.”) I have a vested interest in this, of course.
So here is Gregory Koger’s thesis:
[T]he Death Star is a bit misunderstood. It is primarily a tool of domestic politics rather than warfare, and should be compared to alternative means of suppressing the population of a galaxy. Second, as a weapon of war, it should be compared to alternative uses of scarce defense resources. Understood properly, the Death Star is not worth it.
And ultimately, the case he makes is awfully persuasive. Read the whole thing, but just as a teaser, here’s his short-list of defense improvements the Empire could make using the money earmarked for the Death Star:
The Emperor should not expect, therefore, that a single super-weapon will vanquish all foes. As Seth Masket notes, the same money could be used to make some much-needed, lower-risk investments in the Imperial military. Some examples:
1) Information Security. Wouldn’t it be nice if some too-dumb-to-talk 30-year-old bucket of bolts couldn’t hack into the DS’s computer system in a few seconds? I would think so.
2) Troop Transportation. How does the U.S. military get around in the desert? Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles. How do elite scouts of the future get around? On overgrown lizards. It’s just embarrassing.
3) More robots, please. I get it: The “Clone Wars” featured Republic clones vs. the robot armies of the separatists, and the clones won. Still, though, some of those robots would be really useful in tactical situations, perhaps guided by clones on the ground.
4) More probe droids, please. After the Yavin debacle, the Empire sent out probe droids to scan remote systems. Why not keep a few loitering on every planet on a permanent basis? Then it would be lot harder for any rebellion to hide.
5) Practice, Practice, Practice. An entire legion of the Emperor’s best troops was defeated by a village of teddy bears fighting with sticks and stones. It’s just embarrassing. Clearly they needed better training in tactics, marksmanship and hand-to-paw combat.
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I agree with points 1 and 5. Incidentally, didn’t Princess Leia (Organa) upload the blueprints onto R2 using a floppy disc?
But I sort of disagree with point 2. Our military still occasionally uses horses. Why not the friendly and docile Dewback? And I bet the Empire travels through snow much better than our troops do!
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Dept of Tardy Self-Promotion: A long time ago, when I still updated a blog-like thing, I took inspiration from JVL and wrote up some turgid speculations on the Empire and its nature.
http://www.jallman.net/entry.php?id=44
Short version: Palpatine is a misunderstood reformer, but that doesn’t make him a good guy. (And the Death Star is a rational project for him to have undertaken.)
But I’m eccentric. The article JVL links to is very interesting and persuasive, given its more common view of the Empire and its designs.
James V. May 10, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Oh God, been reading the prior “Death of Obi-Wan”, beenlaughing for ten minutes straight. I’,m scared, I think I hurt something.