John M. Graham <74166.3727@compuserve.com> asks:
> He accepted an invitation to peace talks, bought just happen to
> bring along two nuclear missles with him which could not be
> detected by the enemy (and just why didn't the "Eye" detect his
> ploy? My problem here is, after such a sneak attack, why do the
> Minbari still rally around him? Why don't they change his
> knick-name to "City-Killer" and go off to fight this war the
> honorable way?

Well, you're looking at very different scenarios. A "sneak
attack" a la Pearl Harbor is against a nation that is not at war.

In the Black Star situation, Sheridan's ship was damaged, and
they used that to lure in the aggressor ship (which was coming in to
eliminate them) and destroy it. They were already at war, and they
were taking drastic steps to keep from being destroyed themselves.

In the Z'ha'dum situation, again, there was a war of aggression
on, pursued by the shadows. In wartime, one does sometimes bomb the
capital cities of aggressor nations, from Iraq to Dresden to Tokyo, on
and on.

But neither situation is in the *least* comparable to a sneak
attack. Was there cleverness? Sure. But sometimes you need that to
beat a technically superior enemy.

jms

John M. Graham <74166.3727@compuserve.com> asks:
> Was there cleverness?
> Again I ask, why do they follow him still?

I think the main reason the Minbari have a problem with the
Black Star incident is mainly because it happened to *them*. And even
there it's mainly the warrior caste that's annoyed by it...even though
they were en route to doing something just as reprehensible, the
equivilent to strafing lifeboats in WW2. Frankly, I don't think the
warrior caste would give a fig who else it happened to...they're
outraged because it happened to *them*.

jms