: The Carver Findings are interesting, but I do worry that they are based on a
: number of assumptions. Even Carver himself apparently worried that by
: proclaiming military force to be the best solution, he guided galactic
: governments to see it as the only solution.

: The entire Spartan project is predicated on the idea that UEG control of the
: entire galaxy is a good thing. If the choices are: 1) Planetary
: destruction on a glassed-worlds scale.
: 2) A few dozen kids are conscripted, tortured, and brainwashed into being
: super assassins.

: Then option #2 looks awfully good.

: But why not option 3?

: 3) Make peace with the Innies and allow the human empire to be broken up into
: individual world governments.

: There are many, many historical examples of empires giving up their lands
: with little to no violence, from India to Hong Kong. Why not choose this
: instead?

What if they made peace? The Insurrectionists were the vocal portion of the colonists that no longer wanted to produce food exports and mine raw materials and send them off to Earth and the Inner Colonies. If this supply chain stopped, then the Inner Colonies and Earth would suffer horribly and fail. That's one of the main reasons the Insurrection had to be put down...to keep necessary supplies flowing to the core worlds whose populations needed the supplies they could not furnish themselves with. Peace would probably have slowly killed off the Inner Colonies.

The Insurrection had its basis too. They were left unprotected from raiders/pirating, plus medical aid and so forth was not forthcoming from the UNSC as often as they could respond to Inner Colony issues so rightly, the Outer Colonies felt somewhat abandoned and didn't feel the connection to their heritage worlds.