On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Greg Nokes <xxxxxx@nokes.name> wrote:
> To the point - the Aslan tactics that the other Greg mentioned are straight
> out of H. Beam Piper's Space Viking

> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Viking) - Only they used starships and
> just landed them on the seat of government, disgorging troops and using
> nukes to swat pesky defenders. Nothing new or surprising there, and easily
> defended against if you have a proper planetary defense network.

'50s era thinking, and it shows.

There is no reason for the "seat of government" to be  more than symbolic.

Although the Space Vikings were mostly interested in raiding
*industrial* sites for raw and processed materials, rather than trying
to decapitate & replace the government.

And just for fun, I'll point out how well this is going in "Game of
Thrones" where someone not familair with the local power structure and
it's political ins and outs moved in from outside, staged a decap &
replace, and is now having difficulty *governing* as the previous
"established interests" are restablishing their interests.

Or how smoothly it worked for the US in Iraq, or US led coalition
forces in Afghanistan.

Getting the *leadership* to surrender does not ensure that all the
various existing power blocks, and new power blocks moving into the
vacuum, will comply.

Dan

--

"Any sufficiently advanced parody is indistinguishable from a genuine
kook." -Alan Morgan