Originally
posted by
Helmet:
Detmer: We're a war alliance. We're not looking for sympathy. I'm not the least bit upset we're at war. I am disappointed because I tried to stop it and it didn't work. I don't think you guys should be looking for sympathy either. You had a way out and you chose not to take it. Sure it would have meant swallowing your pride and I get that, but nevertheless you made the choice to fight.
Obviously we know you're not upset. You wanted to war. I'm using the you pronoun to refer to SoF here.
When other options fell through, PDM was your choice, despite the fact that you and Sov knew there was no real reason to hit PDM. You had us on yellow/80 turnsaving for weeks on end while we tried to net, and the pact negotiations ended up seeming like a stalling technique, since you were giving us terms to which you knew we could not agree.
Then you grabbed a few of our fattest countries on the same day. I'm not complaining that we got grabbed, it was just another signal that you were looking for a fight. At that point we considered war to be inevitable despite our genuine desire for peace, and since we were netting all set with absolutely no intention to war you, no war techs, low spies, etc., we had to completely change our macro strategy to try to get into some semblance of war readiness. At that point there was no turning back.
Obviously you wanted us to strike you first for political reasons, but trying to argue that we started the war is ludicrous. I would have much preferred a top 5 finish to fighting against SoF's perpetual boredom and bully tactics.