EDEN: One Senator's Opinion

Day 739, 09:15 • Published in USA USA • by Tyler Bubblar

Let me start by saying I am annoyed. I spent 45 minutes typing a lengthy and in my humble opinion articulate article about joining EDEN. I hit the publish button and my article disappeared. It happens sometimes, but normally I remember to select all and copy just in case. Unfortunately I did not do that this time. With that said I will do my best to replicate the previous article that I so painstakingly wrote earlier this afternoon.

As you no doubt have heard by now President Frost was presented with a formal request for the eUSA to officially join the ranks of EDEN. This invitation was voted and universally agreed upon by the member nations of EDEN. My vote was a yes with very strong misgivings. I weighed the pros and cons as I saw them. I honestly felt that a yes was the best possible choice for the eUSA. Let me make this clear we in congress voted in a large majority to join EDEN because we felt we had no choice for several reasons. Before getting into that I am going to present the arguments for and against that bounced around in my head prior to casting my vote.

AGAINST:

1: This invitation was not so much an invitation as a demand/ultimatum. It was strongly hinted that if we declined this offer EDEN would take a serious look at leaving the eUSA to fend for itself.

2: Directly because of this thinly veiled threat I took a look at our situation. We have Russia perched to the west. They are armed to the teeth with MPPs we activated a very long time ago. In the moment we lose our MPPs we are toast. The eUSA may be one of the strongest nations in eRepublik, but we cannot fight off Indonesia, Iran, Hungary, Russia , and Serbia all by ourselves.
To differentiate this from the very similiar argument in FOR, let me clarify. Join us or we may just let our mutual enemies destroy you, is not the most diplomatic way to send someone an invitation , and it is only a small step (at least in my mind) , from join us or we will destroy you. This is an echo of the now defunct PEACE GC and makes me nervous.

3: I feel that this "invitation" came in large part as a response to our ending hostilities with France, and to a lesser extent possibly Italy. Spain was furious when we called it quits with our war with France, however, due to their being wiped off the maps all their old open wars and any MPPs they activated were wiped clean. Any open conflicts they presently have are one on one recently declared wars. We do not have that kind of security. In short joining EDEN would limit our ability to unilaterally end open conflicts.

4: Upon joining EDEN we would be expected to begin paying into the EMC fund. We already pay (in my mind) a ludicrous amount into the TAF fund. To be fair negotiations are underway to adjust the amount paid into this fund based on income rather than population, however, I have strong suspicions that at least some of our allies view the eUSA as a cashcow.

FOR:

1: Same as reason one in against. EDEN may leave us out in the cold should we refuse to officially join them. I for one do not want to see the miraculous and amazing efforts of regaining our lands undone.

2: EDEN has been there for us they are the reason we were able to repel so many invaders. Taking our place in EDEN would show we are just as committed to them as they are to us. Besides refusing a Unanimously voted upon invitation to join them would be a slap in the face of every friend we have.

3: Russia sitting on our border casting greedy eyes upon Alaska, they are loaded with MPPs and they are just waiting for a sign of weakness. While the storming out of our stronghold in Florida to drive out the invaders was epic, it also left us with the very activated MPPs that gave our enemies the power to invade and nearly wipe us out. Plain and simple we need to stay in the good graces of EDEN.

4: Being a member would give us a voice in the councils of EDEN. Our military commanders would have some say in the tactical deployment of troops and use of resources.

Weighing those arguments in my mind I cast my vote of yes. Some poor decisions made in the ATLANTIS days still have the power to come to haunt us. We must show solidarity with EDEN or the many enemies of the United States of America will pounce. For those who wish to read the EDEN charter it can be found here: http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/topic/128805/treaty-of-the-brotherhood-of-eden/1

The decision to join EDEN was not one that we in Congress and Josh Frost came to lightly. There was a great deal of research and debate put into it. As your Senator for Louisiana I cast my vote with the best possible interests of our nation in mind. Our allies have been stalwart and loyal, we owe them this. Being closely affiliated with EDEN, but not of them could only work as long as they were comfortable with the situation. They are no longer satisfied with the old arrangement, we must adjust and adapt. It is time we place our leaf on EDEN's tree.

God Bless America