Editor’s Note: What follows is an opinion editorial by Jetstream Drenard of BLFOX. The opinions expressed in this article are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of FactionWarfare.com or its staff.

Gallente Militia,

Currently we are in a state of Civil War against Rapid Withdrawal (RDRAW) and their ally Schneckt (SCHNK) only because they became a feeder corp for Snuff, a local pirate group, with whom this militia has had one of the most complicated relationships. However, this was simply the final straw in a history of problems that I believe originated with two events:

RDRAW segregated themselves from the rest of us. By not making friends and by not building camaraderie with their fellow militia mates, a history of bad relations and broken promises of support sloped into complete alienation. Two years ago we began pushing Ishtar doctrines, which ultimately lead the local pirate groups to push themselves to stay ahead of us. Now, the local arena is dominated by groups flying slaved faction battleships, T3 cruisers and capital support in order to stay competitive. Because of our need to keep fighting someone after the Caldari atrophied, we pushed most recruits who couldn’t fly our doctrines to RDRAW, believing they would be an excellent training corp. At the time RDRAW was small enough and had good enough FC’s to get good fights against most of the remaining squids. Since new and inexperienced pilots need to get lots of fights in order to learn and grow, it seemed to be a win-win situation. However, over the course of a couple years, the gulf of understanding between RDRAW and the rest of Galmil widened immeasurably.

As with many systemic problems, both can be traced to a root cause, which I blame heavily on the RDRAW leadership. The mechanics of FW are open to anyone. In keeping with that theme (and a bit of RP), there exists a democratic style leadership within the Gallente. That famous “old guard cabal” has historically proven itself capable of compromise and politics. Unfortunately, RDRAW CEO Tek Stalker has repeatedly proven himself incapable of compromise to the point that he seemed bent on causing discord within leadership channels. Of course, not everyone in leadership likes everyone else, nor are we required to, but we do respect each other. We all know that we must work together for the greater good, and every corp currently among our ranks has made compromises for the sake of others. This happens on regular basis, when we drop everything we are doing to assist in a campaign, or to take or defend assets belonging to others.

I call on the entire militia to seek to rectify all the problems which keep us apart. We can accomplish this in steps:

First, we must drop our war declarations against Rapid Withdrawal as a show of good faith. Our war decs against them are a matter of principle and a statement of symbolic outrage against their permanent relationship with forces outside the militia. For this to resolve anything, RDRAW must either leave the militia or end their permanent blue status with Snuffed Out. Traditionally, Galmil has been friendly with various pirate groups throughout the war zone, but we continue to fight them occasionally, and our only true blues are other members of the militia. We are who we are because we look out for only each other, and we always fight, no matter the enemy or in this case, frenemy. RDRAW’s relationship with Snuff flies in the face of everything we as a group have stood for over the years, and it must be ended to bring peace to the militia.

To be effective as a militia, we must also unify on comms and in fleets. We need to establish the bonds of trust and cooperation that are only possible when we work and live together on TS and in space. Furthermore, when we call for assistance, showing up in your own segregated fleet and comms and then warping out in the middle of a fight simply leads to more losses for every GalMil fleet involved. We call on all of you to join Slack as well, with your leadership having the appropriate admin rights to maintain private channels for you own usage. Working together, we are one of the strongest forces in the War Zone as demonstrated by defense of your home system Sujarento, where we held the field against almost every pirate and squid group in the area.

Lastly, we know that you are no longer a noob corp. We are sorry that we treated you in that regard for so long. Yet, we must continue the work of bringing new players into the fold. We must teach them how to participate in any fleet at their individual SP levels, as they progress towards mainline doctrines. We also seek to assist every corp in attaining the fiscal means to fully SRP all support ships, so that all our newer members can build their earnings towards mainline doctrines.

We know this will not be an easy thing as a lot of hard feelings have built up over the years. It will be hard for both sides, but it is vitally important that we open up the dialogue and then fully integrate, or we will only permanently distrust each other. I know that the rest of GalMil doesn’t want that, and I would hope that you don’t want that either. Together we are strong. The squids are weak, and the local pirates feeding off the content we create are ripe for the picking.

-Jetstream

OpEd: Our Own Worst Enemies was last modified: by