It was been said that ordinary citizens such as Kithrak, nor Marisha or myself to not have the authority to negotiate on behalf of Omni-Tek. That is of course true. However I believe anyone motivated to do so can set the foundations for future negotiations by simply getting people from both sides to really think in some detail about what it is exactly they are fighting for.
It worries me that we seem locked in a conflict without any stated war aims, if nothing else how do you know when your aims have been met and you can stop?.
It worries me that both sides seem to think they are fighting purely a defensive war, surely if both sides were really protecting their people and property there would be precious little fighting.
And above all it worries me that somewhere in all this there is a third party backing the Dust Bridge whose only known purpose is to keep the war raging and disrupt any hope for peace. I do not like to be manipulated. I suspect most people do not either.
One should not think of peace negotiations as an all or nothing proposition. It is something that can be achieved in small steps over a long period of time. Shouting "There can be no peace till Omni-Tek has a presence on this planet!" is not very constructive and will just ensure we perpetuate the misery of the last 200 years.
But if one were willing to dig deeper, with a bit of soul searching
one could all break down what we seek to achieve through the fighting into a list of simple, specific needs, desires and demands, then maybe some of them can be addressed. Maybe Omni-Tek would agree to give up it's Northern bases in exchange for the Clans vacating their base in 20K. Maybe we can agree to limit the fighting to prime military and economic targets, leaving out population centres in which the very young and very old are not covered by insurance.
Any gain that can be made, any one of the many issues of contention between Omni and Clan that can be set to rest is a step in the right direction . It would help diffuse the powder keg that is Rubi-Ka and take a little bit of wind out of the sails of those militants, of either side, who for their own personal reasons would see our world plunged into war for all eternity.
You may dismiss this as 'hippie tree-higging carebear' measures or "brain-washed Omni propaganda", I simply call it diplomacy, something all sane, civilised nations have engaged in since the dawn of time to avoid the human, economic and political cost of wars.
So shall we start acting like grown ups?
Savoy