Jovan: Diplomatic Incidentals

[Tiberius Anar]

"...is totally unacceptable..."

Tiberius Anar was only dipping into the stream of vituperation flowing from Moff Grisen. He needed only get the gist of his argument and, since it was the same gist as he had been getting for months. Every time the argument was presented as though it was a work of great originality, which, by now, it was not.

Perhaps I should write it out and seal it prior to the next one of these meetings. Then I could produce it and amaze everybody with a reveal at the end. I could gain a reputation as a mind reader!

"...foolhardy and misguided..."

The trouble was that the military had been triply humiliated in the past three years.

First they had failed to contain, let alone crush, the rebellion by conventional means. Second, they had then invested heavily in unconventional means, engaging in the expensive race to develop new superweapons only to be beaten to the working model by the rebels. Then, in a third and final kicking, the peace negotiations and resulting treaty had implicitly conceded that force and, by extension its practitioners, had failed.

After such a succession of blows, the military was smarting and spoiling for a fight. They wanted to lash out at the peacemakers, especially the peacemaker in chief Tiberius Anar, Imperial Chancellor.

"...unnecessary reversal of policy..."

Unfortunately, the officers of the Empire were, like officers everywhere, not given to public moaning. Their sense of propriety made them hesitant to voice publicly (or even semi-publicly) their outrage. So they left it to the moffs.

"...a supine acceptance..."

The moffs, for all that they dressed in uniform and occasionally reviewed parades or walked the bridges of star destroyers, were not actually military. They were uniformed administrators, civilians given rank for the form of the thing. Some knew the true nature of their role but others, like Grisen, did not and they allowed themselves to lose sight of their proper place and priorities because of a nominal rank. They posed and overacted the part of militarist.

"...betrayal of our honoured dead..."

Hence the regular verbal drubbings the chancellor was receiving. He had received each calmly, hoping that hitting a target that was not fighting back would weary and bore his attackers. It was working, as it always did.

But it is tedious to take no action. I think it is time to do something, even if it isn't fighting back.

"...no consideration for..."