posted
Now here's something that occurred to me as I was eating my dinner and watching a TNG rerun, an episode with Ensign Ro and Bajoran refugees. The situation with the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, and the Federation, seems to me to closely mirror the unfolding situation in Kosovo with one notable exception: to my knowledge the Federation never intervened on behalf of the Bajorans. I know that the Federation fought a war with Cardassia and one point (why I don't know), but I'm not sure if the Federation was aware of the, shall we say, mistreatment of the Bajoran people by the Cardassians. In times like these the Federation seems to hold to a strict policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of others (a policy recently abandoned by NATO), as was seen in the Klingon civil war (Gowron vs. Duras).
But is there a situation in which the Federation would intervene? To prevent the destruction of one species at the hands of another? As far as I know, the prime directive only applies to species who have not yet developed warp capability (ie races the Federation does not have official contact with). But what about others? Any opinions?
Mine is that each situation should be evaluated individually, and there are cases where the Federation should intervene. Granted, starfleet isn't too great in a fight, and they may take on more than they can handle, but I think the prevention of the destruction of an entire species would warrant such drastic action, unless you know for a fact that such action would destroy the Federation itself.
------------------ "Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you." -Commander Riker, USS Enterprise
posted
I think the prime directive is so extensive simply because the federation believes that it is not wise enough to interfere in the affairs of other people's. Afterall, what the federation might think is "good" for a people might 1) actually be bad or 2) not be wanted by that people. Peoples on their own should not be interfered with, because they are excersing their rights, in whatever they do, as sentient beings. thus, the federation has not intervened on situations such as the klingon civil war. However, when their are conflicts between peoples the federation may or may not get involved. If there is a war, let's say, between the Breen and the Tholians, and the Tholians are killing off the entire brren race through genocide, then the federation might (and i believe should) interfere. Afterall, what the breen themselves need or want has alreday been infringed upon by the tholains. Thus, the breen's right to run themselves if meaningless because the breen AREN'T running themselves. So the federation can get involved to protect the breen's right to run themselves.
I believe that whole issue of the federation not interfering with the cardassian occupation of bajor was a mistake. The federation probabaly shouldn't have interfered unless the bajorans asked for help. If the bajorans asked for help, then I believe it would have been the duty for the federation to help. The Bajorans' right as sentient beings to run themselves was being infrigned upon. The federation would have been the bajorans' only hope. The occupation was not an internal cardassian issue because the bajorans had only recently (within the century) been invaded by the cardassians. Hence, the bajorans were still a seperate people, with seperate wnats and needs, with the right to decide their own fate.
To conclude, perhaps the federation only interferes with inter-people issues, but issues within a people should not be interfered upon.
------------------ "How many people does it take before it becomes wrong? 6,000? 60,000? How many people does it take admiral!?!" -Ambassador Picard during his command of the Enterprise-E in the Ba'ku incident.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
