Escape pods eject from the USS Defiant, NX-74205 after Captain Sisko gives the order to abandon ship, in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Whether or not the second boat strike was a war crime, there is no doubt that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (R) is one evil bastard. Ordering a second strike to kill two men who couldn’t even access a radio? Did no one teach him anything about combat ethics during his time in the National Guard?
I’m giving Admiral Bradley the benefit of the doubt only because I don’t know much about him at this point. But any time someone can say you did something evil the Nazis wouldn’t have done, you have to ask yourself if maybe you’re actually one of the bad guys.
I was reading an account of a World War II pilot who got shot down by the Luftwaffe somewhere over Europe. The Nazis killed a lot of defenseless people, but in the case of that one downed enemy pilot, the Luftwaffe pilot had enough of a sense of honor to not shoot a second time.
The Luftwaffe fighter pilot did not shoot the parachuting “enemies of the Reich” as my father and other survivors slowly floated to the fields below after their bomber was hit. Nor did [the Luftwaffe fighter pilot] loop back to strafe these enemies after they hit ground, even though an hour earlier these very enemies had been dropping bombs on the German homeland.
The author’s father did not get any special treatment, as he
spent the next two years at Stalag Luft III, a prisoner of war camp he shared with 11,000 other allied airmen who had similarly been spared by the Nazis when they survived a similar shoot-down over Nazi Europe or North Africa.
It was this account that made me remember an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine titled “The Changing Face of Evil,” which first aired on April 28, 1999. This episode is from the show’s final season, and is actually very close to the show’s series finale.
Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs, left) and Legate Broca (Mel Johnson, Jr.) express their deference and loyalty to the Founders in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Let us freely discuss anything that happens in the show's seven seasons. Some details from more recent Star Trek shows might be relevant, but please, let’s not bash those newer shows just to bash them.
So in the latter half of Deep Space Nine’s run, the United Federation of Planets is embroiled in a war with the Dominion, an empire from another quadrant of the galaxy ruled by non-humanoid shapeshifters.
Those changelings call themselves “Founders,” and are helped by at least two species of genetically engineered subordinate humanoids: the ruthless Jem’Haddar soldiers and the Vorta administrators. Most of the time the Founders don’t give orders directly to the Jem’Haddar, using one or more of the Vorta as intermediaries for each order. Both the Vorta and the Jem’Haddar have fine-grained hierarchies among themselves that have probably been elaborated in ancillary Star Trek content, but each Founder is equal to all other Founders.
By the time of “The Changing Face of Evil,” the Founders had also subjugated the Breen and the Cardassians, two humanoid species from our quadrant of the galaxy. The Breen contribute special energy weapons to the Dominion’s arsenal, and the USS Defiant, NX-74205, finds itself an unfortunate target of that previously unknown weapon. Soon Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) is forced to give the order to abandon ship.
Although the Defiant is shot at a second time (presumably by a more conventional weapon from the Cardassians or the Jem’Haddar), no one shoots at the escape pods, which presumably have some communications and defensive capabilities.
I wish that clip had included a little bit more dialogue. I’ll start the following excerpt of the transcript of the episode with the last line of the video above. Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs), probably the highest-ranking of the Vorta, reports what has just happened to one of the Founders (Salome Jens). That particular Founder is sometimes referred to as “female changeling” or “female shapeshifter,” which is kind of inaccurate, but that’s not relevant to this particular conversation.
WEYOUN: Poor Captain Sisko. I believe he was quite fond of that ship. Founder, I’m happy to report that the Chin’toka System is ours once again.
FOUNDER: A step in the right direction. Send my compliments to the Breen.
WEYOUN: I’m certain that will please them greatly.
FOUNDER: Really? I have no idea what would please the Breen nor do I care, as long as they fight and win. I will not tolerate defeat any longer.
WEYOUN: Nor will I. All those escape pods. So small, so vulnerable. I’ll order their destruction immediately.
FOUNDER: No. Let them return to the Federation. Those pods are filled with frightened, demoralized troops.
WEYOUN: Troops that will spread fear throughout the Federation with tales of what happened here today. The Founder is wise.
The Founders are not at all worried about how the Dominion will be portrayed in reports by the Federation News Service. The survivors of the destruction of the USS Defiant will likely portray the Founders as evil. The Founders are not worried about that because they’re not pushing any sort of false narrative about the war to the subjects of the Dominion nor to themselves.
Note the restraint of the Jem’Haddar. Earlier I described them as “ruthless.” Their lethality is not the least bit in doubt at this point in the series. But without a direct order from the Founders or from the Vorta, the Jem’Haddar will not shoot at escape pods. And this even though they’re not bound by any sort of galactic equivalent to the Geneva conventions.
So, what do you think about this work of fiction and how it relates to our current moment in real life?
