Is Pennsylvania More Important than Asturias?

Day 630, 17:56 • Published in USA USA • by Lieutenant Scheisskopf

Although I am raising a question critical of eUS military policy with the title of this article, I hope that all who serve in the military will continue to follow orders as I have. I disagreed with our orders and am voicing my opinion here in my private paper, but I fought in Illinois because that is what our commanding officers have chosen. I hope comments will be civil and do not wrongfully question my patriotism or my commitment to the war effort.
Many people will remember my previous article where I argued in favor of defending Asturias at all costs. Asturias is under attack and will be hard-pressed to survive without FORTIS/EDEN's strongest member state rallying to its aid. If it falls, we lose one of our last (and most stable) high iron regions and a major hub of eSpain's economy and population.

Today's Orders
Protecting Illinois makes sense. Illinois is the eUS' last high oil region and would be difficult to replace, as none of our allies currently possesses a comparable region. Illinois should have a defense system-- even a small one-- but that is a moot point today and may be something worth considering in the future.

The question is, what is to be gained from protecting Pennsylvania? The answer can't be resources, since medium grain and high wood are fairly abundant. No loss of resources is a positive, but the loss of these materials pales in comparison to the loss of Illinois' oil or Asturias' iron. Similarly, the answer cannot be population (435 citizens in Pennsylvania makes the state 6th in population amongst the remaining states), nor can it be to protect the state's Q2 hospital and defense system. Similar to what we have done in Indiana, we should consider sacrificing Pennsylvania to better conserve our resources on other fronts.

Some may correctly say that Pennsylvania is a stepping stone to the Northeast eUS, and I agree. I even think that is part of the reason why Pennsylvania is less critical, as its location would result in an ePortuguese victory bottlenecking PEACE the way that Russia's victory in Missouri prevented eIndonesia from attacking the eUS directly; we would be in a better position to defend our remaining territories. If ePortugal took Pennsylvania, eRussia could no longer advance. The Northeast eUS would only need to be concerned with eFrance, who would probably not attack and risk activating eUS MPPs or stop fighting eSpain, and the eUK, who is just not going to declare war on the eUS. ePortugal would be between a rock and a hard place, left to attack either a higher wall in New York or the fortress of New Jersey. The only way the eRussians could be involved was through a region swap, and they could only swap for Pennsylvania by either swapping for Maryland or Ontario (very unlikely eFrance would give that up) first.

Asturias, Again
Emerick and the Joint Chiefs showed that they understand the high importance of iron-heavy regions when they rallied to protect eGreece from eTurkey, but to overlook the threat Asturias currently faces seems illogical. There are about 16 hours left in the battle at the time of this article's publication and much could change in that time. It is even possible that the Administration will call for a strong, late rush to Asturias' aid to offset any late tanking by PEACE-- and rightfully so, the Administration should not be broadcasting their intentions.

With all this being said, I hope that I am right that we will be sent to Asturias sometime around 1300 game time tomorrow. We all know that PEACE has a much deeper war chest thanks to some unfortunate oversight with eSpain's finances; as a result, I am reluctant to let our most important iron source and a major business hub's survival hinge on a tanking battle against an enemy with much more gold. At the very least, our orders for 12 August should be to fight in Asturias as close to 1300 game time as possible. I hope that I will not be proven right when I say that the loss of Asturias will be devastating to our prolonged war effort, and I am anxious for the chance to take up arms there and protect our allies' valuable resources.

God Bless America,

Lt. Scheisskopf