Destroying Alderaan

Was it wise of Tarkin to destroy Alderaan? Shouldn't he at least thought for a second about how many Imperials' home planet was Alderaan and that these Imperials would now betray the Empire and defect to the rebellion with vital information or become spys for the rebellion?

 

The Empire's high command had nothing but contempt for the Rebels. Only one officer (Motti or Tagge?) voiced the opinion that they may be a threat, and was promptly shot down.

 

The Imperial propaganda machine tried to make it seem like it was the Rebellion's fault that Alderaan got destroyed, though.

 

if leia told of a less remote system, possibly alderaan could be around still.

 

Dammit, Bib beat me to it. The Imperial propoganda machine made it sound like the Rebels had destroyed the planet, and not the Empire. Tarkin probably knew that would happen. Plus, he wasn't going to mind if just a few hundred thousand troops deserted them. They'd probably be caught in the middle of their escape, or shot down, etc. And if they got away, there were always more.

 

The only reason they would have made it sound like the rebels destroyed alderran was because the Death star was destroyed as well. If the Death star was still around they'd have said "Yeah we blew it up, watcha gonna do about it punk?"

 

I think it was the worst mistake Tarkin could have made

It simply showed the galaxy that no one was safe, that the Empire was truly evil

I think all destroying Alderaan accomplished was rallying planets behind the Alliance

 

Alderaan was a hive of rebel terrorists. (see "how was the empire evil") No one gets upset if you only kill the bad guys.

 

Is it possible that Alderaan was always the first target for the Death Star.

We know that Bail never agreed with the Emperor's power or his oppression on the Galaxy. Is it also coincidence that as soon as the Emperor disovled the senate that the DS appeared at Alderaan ? I can imagine that the first to rebel would have been Bail

Just a thought

edit: spelling

 

I forget who said this but "One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist." I know it was said in Die Another Day, but I've heard it used before then.

Alderaan was indeed a peaceful planet, it had dismantled their armed forces and their few ships, were sent off somewhere. The worse that Alderaan did was supply the Rebels, but few would actually fight, that is until it was destroyed.

 

I agree with farraday. It was the intent of the Empire to "take credit" for blowing up Alderaan, as evidenced by Tarkin's line: "Fear will keep the local systems in line, fear of this battle station."

I guess the Empire would have had Alderaan labeled a rebellious system, and well, that's what you get.

As far as it being wise of Tarkin, I think not. If my kid is getting out of line, I may disipline him, even spank him, but I sure ain't going to blow him up!

It was overkill. But I guess that was the point of the Death Star.

 

Well, it did send some imps over to the other side-Tycho Celchu, for one.

I would imagine that if Star Wars really happened, the destruction of Alderaan would be featured on The History Channel program, "History's Greatest Military Blunders"

 

I mean, could you imagine if the city of San Francisco was rallying against the US government and the President just dropped an H-bomb on them??? What do you think would happen? Would the rest of America rise up or cower?

Edit: Typo

 

I think that given the nature of Americans, it would start a raging civil war.

And I also think that if the Empire had had a lick of sense, they wouldn't have destroyed a peaceful system like Alderaan. I would have chosen the Smuggler's Moon, because then they can equate the Rebels with the Hutts and also get points for destroying what the "civilized" galaxy views as a hive of scum and villany. I wouldn't have considered the public backlash worth it just to get an answer out of someone, not when Vader could've forced it out of her eventually. But then, that same illogical, overconfident, over-the-top, not considering the disgruntled citizens/Rebels a threat attitude is what eventually led to the Empire's downfall, so let's be glad they weren't that smart.

 

I can see how it would make sense from Tarkin's POV. Blowing up something less important than Alderaan would reduce the fear potential. Dantooine was too remote to make an "effective" demonstration. Blowing up Alderaan literally and figuratively kills 2 (or more) birds with one stone.

I also would argue that Vader would not have gotten the information out of Leia. She WOULD have died before telling and she was capable of resisting the probe. With the Imperial Senate disbanded, the Empire needed to rule by fear. The only effective way for them to instill fear into trillions of people would be through an unmistakable demonstration of the Death Star.

Tarkins overconfidence contributed to the destruction of the Death Star. The resulting fear vacuum allowed massive new support to begin moving to the Alliance. If the Death Star survived Yavin 4, the fear-factor would have prevented or checked much of this new support for the Alliance.

 

if leia told of a less remote system, possibly alderaan could be around still.
Yes, but they would have destroyed that planet so it still would have accomplished nothing.

 

Feh, excuse my ignorance about the Dark Side, but couldn't Palpatine or Vader just ripped the knowledge from her? It doesn't jive with what I've read about Force powers, especially when used for evil.

 

The problem though, with a "Rule by Fear" doctrine is that then people start figuring that they have nothing to lose.

Rule by Fear doesn't really work. It only pisses people off.

 

Really?

I won't deny it pisses people off but I dare say I could with small effort find examples of where rule by fear had kept someone in power for decades.


In the long term it will almost certainly fail, however that is small comfort to those who die waiting for it to happen.


I think when Tarkin espuses his rule by fear doctrine we should take it at face value for the intended course of the Empire, regardles sof how sucessful we may feel it would be over the course of the centuries.

 

I mean, could you imagine if the city of San Francisco was rallying against the US government and the President just dropped an H-bomb on them??? What do you think would happen? Would the rest of America rise up or cower?

Depends. Do you simply fall into line, or do you decide that your life is worth trying to make sure than he could never do something like that again?

Tarkin was too proud of his 'technological triumph' He thought no one would dare to stand up to him or the Empire, no matter what he did. He gambled, and lost big.

 

Do you simply fall into line, or do you decide that your life is worth trying to make sure than he could never do something like that again?

That is not the question.

The question is, do you fall in line or by your actions incurr the deaths of yourself, your friends, your family, and several million other people?

Ruling by fear isn't when people are afraid of what you'll do to them it's when people are afraid of what will happen to them if anyone else gets out of line. Rule by fear is when the mob beats you to death to keep from being killed by the retaliation for your actions.

 

Maybe Tarkin just needed a refresher course in Machiavellian politics?

 

Less remote system? Hm..

"Coruscant... they're on Coruscant."

 

Well, yeah, rule by fear might work for a little while, but you'd have to keep stamping out resistance groups, have a lot of coup de'tats (spelling?) and that sort of thing.

Look at how much trouble the Russian Tsars had?

 

Remember folks, we've never seen the surface of Alderaan, and we know little about it. Perhaps there was more on Alderaan than meets the eye. Maybe there were stations on the planet which produced Rebel vechicles and equipment.

A good idea to tinker with is that maybe the planet funded the Rebellion. Bail Organa is likely to be one of the first people to form the Rebellion so it wouldn't be farfetched if he had his planet support the Alliance that he could no longer control himself.