Fork: The objective is to strike deep into Imperial territory with a large force. With that alone, we will make the blood of the citizens of the Empire run cold.

Ulanfu: Then you mean we are to invade without fighting, and then withdraw?

Fork: That’s not the case. We must maintain a high degree of flexibility and react to events as the situation demands.

Ulanfu: Please be a bit more specific. That’s a little abstract.

Bucock: He means we’re supposed to look for a good chance.

Fork: Is there anything else?

Yang: May I?

Sitolet: Go ahead, Admiral Yang.

Yang: I want to hear the reason why it was decided to invade the Empire at this time.

Bucock: Isn’t it for the upcoming election?

Fork: In war, there are opportunities. If we miss this opportunity, we are at fate’s mercy.

Yang: So what you’re saying is, now is our chance to take the offensive against the Empire?

Fork: It’s not just an offensive! It’s a great crusade! Using Iserlohn Fortress as a bridgehead, we’ll invade deep into Imperial territory. Faced with that, the Imperial Fleet will panic, and not knowing what to do, the unprecedented, massive fleet of the Alliance will advance, flying the flat of righteousness for the FPA. There can’t be anything other than victory!

Yang: However, in this operation, our supply lines will be very long. It will cause difficulties with supplies and communications. Furthermore, by merely attacking our long, thin flank the enemy can easily cut our forces apart.

Fork: Why do you stress this possibility? The enemy will then be caught between our fleets. Trapped from front and rear, we’ll bombard them from all sides. There is no doubt we will deal them a crushing defeat. What Admiral Yang imagines is an insignificant risk.

Yang: No. The commander of the Imperial Fleet will probably be count Lohengramm. Considering his demonstrated military genius, we must draw up a little more cautious plan.

Greenhill: Admiral yang, I know you think highly of Count Lohengramm, but he’s still young. He may also fail.

Yang: That may be. But if we make a biggest mistake than he does, then he’ll win and we’ll be destroyed.

Fork: That’s no more than speculation, Admiral Yang. I’m afraid you overestimate the enemy. As a warrior, that’s disgraceful. Furthermore, you lower our allies’ moral, weakening their resolution. I think you’re helping the enemy.

Bucock: Commodore Fork! You’re being rude.

Fork: How so?

Bucock: Accusing anyone who questions your ideas, or advises caution, of aiding the enemy – that’s impolite.

Fork: I’m speaking generally. I didn’t intend to slander anyone. Well now – the goal of this noble cause is to liberate 25 billion citizens of the Galactic Empire who are oppressed by its totalitarian government. Anyone opposing this can’t help but be seen as aiding the Empire. Can anyone say I’m wrong? Suppose they have a geographical advantage or even have a new weapon beyond our imagination; we must not shrink from our duty! If we act for a just cause, as a liberation force, the citizens of the Empire will rush to greet us, cheering and aiding our advance! And then…

* * *

I don’t think this rhetoric is dissimilar to Truniht’s saccharin pandering affairs of episode three. As Bucock pointed out later, Fork relies on eloquence (something us monoglots won’t understand) to make his point instead of actual convincing rhetoric as Ulanfu indicates with his remark “[p]lease be a bit more specific. That’s a little abstract.” The problem with this entire meeting is that Fork’s plan is never clarified to any degree of compelling precision (within the clip that is; he goes off with ellipses in the anime but we don’t see the real adjournment). His most detailed tactical point is that “[t]he enemy will then be caught between our fleets. Trapped from front and rear, we’ll bombard them from all sides.” And even that is fairly ambiguous as to how such a tactic will be approached, executed, if there are any backups, and so forth.

Fork’s statements are also highly charged with binaries as he forces his audience to choose between one option or another, essentially picking right or wrong:

“In war, there are opportunities. If we miss this opportunity, we are at fate’s mercy.” In this case the logic is broken down into miss or do not miss, though I don’t think fate’s mercy would discriminate between options.

“There can’t be anything other than victory!…Why do you stress this possibility?” Fork divides his strategy into win/lose, though he attempts to reject even the slightest possibility of defeat. That’s why Yang’s seemingly overly cautious speculation comes off as a rather anomalous category that doesn’t conform to the rigidity of Fork’s discourse.

“Anyone opposing this can’t help but be seen as aiding the Empire. Can anyone say I’m wrong?” This is the significant part where he politically frames his wording to align his opposition as aiding the Empire. Even if someone accuses this statement in itself of being illogical or incorrect they are thus situated within the diametric political ideology, the Empire. It becomes futile to argue against the density of his logic; you could say Fork is quite an excellent Sophist. Of course Bucock got around him, but any attempt to steer the strategy away from Fork was pyrrhic from the start since it was the government’s decision to invade.

“[W]e must not shrink from our duty! If we act for a just cause, as a liberation force, the citizens of the Empire will rush to greet us, cheering and aiding our advance!” Just icing on the cake. Fork furthers the framing of his binaries by piling on additional patriotic ideologies – duty, justice, liberty – implicitly framing his opposition as antithetical to these ideologies (lethargy, corruption, suppression).