[VanderVecken]

What "Highly Trained military force? The Galactica was gonna be decommissioned at the start of the show. The ship had a FEW OLD vets (many rusty as hell), who's usefulness to society had made the military a pariah. Remember the Twelve Colonies, were for the most-pat a bunch of Peace-nics. Imaginge the cut-backs the Military had to endure, since the previous Cylon war had ended. The ship was not even full. It had a small core of OLD vets and a bunch of kids transfered on in the last year or two so that it could be Decommissioned with style. "Who needs warships, we're not at war", was the philosophy of the day ... Till the mushroom clouds came.

And in least that respect ... If you look closely, both the original and this version, both shared the same message. "The military is not god, but don't let it wither and die when times are good(and peaceful), because things can change fast.

P.S. - can anyone imagine what Iraq II war would have been like if U.S. had its 1960's sized Military instead if its small one it had since the end of the 1980's ??? (of course, the US economy would have collapsed like the USSR did if it had attempted to maintain its 'Cold War' sized military.)

Added note - Although not entirely pleased with the Rockball story arc, I still think it's one of the better shows currently on TV, Maybe others would prefer 'DEAL or no DEAL', or yet another LA Law clone, (And if you do, Hooray for you, since TV is for the most part just the modern day equivelent of roman Gladitorial Games - "Bread and Circuses". Thats another O.T. thread, eh ?) The only problem of this current story arc with it's Iraq war parallels is that the audience who watches this show, for the most part, is intelligent enough to have already understood that there are more than just the GOOD-Guys side in the war. 'NBG' shows what it's like to be thrust into the situation of being on the other side. And maybe ask the question, 'what makes a person believe that being a Suicide bomber is a viable and acceptable thing. Especially when INNOCENTS will die as collateral damage. Unfortunately, the people who need to see and possibly understand this, usually watch much easier TV to digest for the most part.