The IssueIn a bloody civil war in nearby Maxtopia, the majority Violetist community is rebelling against a minority-led secular government with a terrible history of human rights abuses. Some Violetists from Shetl have traveled to Maxtopia to fight on the side of their fellow believers.
The Debate
1. "These Violetists are coming back brainwashed with fundamentalist ideals and trained in terrorist methods," argues Zack Chen, your Minister of Internal Security. "They're a real danger to us all. You've got to lock up all of these returnees until we can be sure that they're not planning terrorist atrocities here, however long that may take."
2. "This is all a massive overreaction," opines sociologist and civil rights campaigner Gertie Smith. "The Violetists are no threat to us in Shetl. All we need to do is provide humanitarian aid for the victims of the civil war, and some help for the returnees to reintegrate into society. I'm sure that none of them would want to cause trouble here."
3. "That's pointless," insists Klaus Hanover, one of the more bellicose members of the General Staff. "The real problem is clearly in Maxtopia. We should bomb the Maxtopian government until they agree to be nice to everyone." Then he pauses, looking confused. "Or maybe we should bomb the rebels until they agree to be less fanatical." He pulls a map of Maxtopia out of his back pocket and shows it to you. "Look: we've got plenty of great targets that we could hit. We could even bomb the Bigtopians to prevent them from entering the conflict. Let's just bomb all of 'em, eh?"
^ issue #423; they started out with 30 iirc.
― (o), Saturday, 23 May 2015 07:16 (eight years ago) link