Rebels are in the news now, this has begun to get me thinking about one particular group of rebels, not the brave men and women in libya, certainly not the rebels in 1776 but ones from a galaxy far far away and that began fighting a long time ago. If that clue wasn't enough stop reading, leave the computer and go and watch star wars (Episode IV: A New Hope will suffice). I am, of course, referring to the rebellion that supported the old republic.
Before I discuss the rebels I think it would be worth to set the scene in this galaxy. The Empire - having evolved from the old republic (an elected government with representatives of each planet) appears to be a sham democracy with Emperor palpatine acting as a dictator and Lord Vader as a military commander - though not as high ranking as you would think initially. Still this is besides the point - the key point here is that the republic that governed the galaxy for generations has evolved into a new form and the empire , though clearly evil - the Nazi similarities need not to be mentioned, plus all that black? have to be evil, is governing the galaxy and allowing normal people to go about their lives - yes they do thermal detonator innocent moisture farmers and environmental policy is not great, those normal people will likely notice no difference between when Palpatine was chancellor and when he was Emperor, at least until the Jedi and the rebels acted up.
When the rebels begin their fight against the empire they begin to destabilise the Galaxy they strive so hard to protect. Were the rebels not to exist would the galaxy far far away not be a better place for the peoples of the republic to inhabit? Take the citizens of alderaan for instance: they would be living normal, happy lives, having children, working jobs and going to schools. For them the "plight of the rebellion" is just a story on the evening news - that is until a large space station decides to come into orbit with a "princess" on board ("princess" I state as her father - senator bail organa is not king, thus how is she a princess? I digress) and their happy little world is destroyed because leia organa wouldn't give Lord Vader what he asked for - needless to say that the destruction of Alderaan was a senseless act of violence by the former jedi, but it was feasible for him to do so, and, it being feasible, should have alerted to the rebels that there was a significant chance he would. Further still if there were no rebels, who would the Empire be fighting? would there be a need for the Death Star?
This then finally leads to the two largest acts of evil against the Empire, and though I am conscious of the date that this article was posted, draws many parallels between itself and terrorist attacks - 9/11 most prominently in my mind. Two times the Empire has built a "Death Star", both times it has been filled to the brim with not only Stormtroopers (not actually Stormtroopers in the sense of specialist Germans in WW2 but just soldiers) , but pilots, engineers and as it seems to act as some sort of hub for the Empire more than a few administrative staff. So whilst the Rebellion will often justify their actions as "it prevented another Alderaan" or "it destroyed an Imperial Army" they also killed several accountants and engineers - heroic? probably not.
Then of course take popular perception into account, after the destruction of the first Death Star would Luke Skywalker be a popular icon among the galaxy's populous? no, he wouldn't . Remember the (rightful) backlash against the men and their allies who undertook the 9/11 attacks? now imagine 9/11 but a million times larger, so many men and women would've died, so many families would be mourning. It's hard to imagine that the galaxy wouldn't have some form of media, and knowing how media works in modern-day dictatorships with filtering and control that they wouldn't paint him as at least an instigator figure, Mon mothma or Leia would probably be the "Bin Laden" figure, plus it would aid the "spin" when the Empire invaded Hoth. But then doesn't Luke talk of "joining the rebellion" this suggests that there is indeed some rebel controlled media - at least on the outer-rim worlds, whether this is little more than the internet or underground media is unknown.
The rebels are, of course, the force for good in the galaxy. So how do you justify the destruction of a death star? well for a start the imperials attacked a civilian world, likely unarmed and probably unsuspecting such an attack. The Rebels attacked a military installation and destroyed a weapon, the civilians on-board died as "collateral damage" and though regrettable is entirely necessary for the galaxy to be free from the Empire, which falls rather unconvincingly for me as the entirety collapses after the deaths of the Emperor and Vader - i doubt that such a large force wouldn't have a contingency though this is a discussion for later.
Th final question then in answer to whether the rebellion really are heroes or terrorists is probably neither. Terrorists attack for political gain but usually attack civilians for no real bonus due to the target, the destruction of the Death Star did give the Rebels some political momentum but the target was not arbitrary, the Death Star was easily the only thing that they needed to destroy (perhaps only the imperitor star destroyer comes close). Though they were not heroic in their goals, the destruction was a horrific incident that left the Empire weakened, it also would backlash, with many innocent lives lost ( we aren't sure, at least in a new hope, whether the Empire has a "galactic service" policy) and probably turn the core worlds against them. In their initial attack on Alderaan though the Empire positioned themselves as terrorists( despite their size and political stability) , perhaps it wasn't the rebels who were the terrorists but the Empire with the response they received entirely justified. And perhaps something similar could be read into our own war on terror? but that is not for me to say.
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I realise that today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and also that I have mentioned terrorists, terrorism and indeed 9/11 itself in this article, this has been drafted for at least a week and is the result of several hours of work: the date was merely a coincidence. My heart goes out to those who did lose someone that day and to all the people who have been lost since due to the ramifications of the incident. I hope that my post does not in any way make it seem as though attacks of this nature are justified , the murder of innocent civilians never is, and also does not belittle the event as that was not my intention at all. Our world will never be the same as it was before that day in September 2001.
