Star Trek: The Next Generation/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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**** That implies that the US military is ''not'' a meritocracy, which is absurd. Also, the US military does not give promotions merely for time served either... ''except'' for personnel who are imprisoned or missing in action, because they are still serving but conditions render it impossible to evaluate exactly how well they are serving and write an efficienty report on them, which would normally make convening a promotion board for them impossible. Since the only two alternatives in this situation are thus 'automatic fail' or 'automatic pass', such personnel are given a benefit of the doubt because Jesus wept, the guy's already been stuck in a POW camp for years and the last thing he needs is ''more'' getting shit upon.
***** And again, what the US military does means fuckall to Starfleet. Period.
****** You're completely missing the point. The point isn't whether Starfleet's regulations exist as written. Of course they do, the author controls what canon is and Starfleet, as you point out, is not legally bound by US precedent. The ''point'' is whether or not ''Tom Riker has a legitimate reason to feel like he's been treated unfairly by the system'' or not. At this point, comparing and contrasting Starfleet's policies to those of other military organizations we're more familiar with and generally accept as 'fair' for us is not only relevant, its pretty much required. And the comparision leaves Starfleet looking pretty dickish.
 
== Practicing starship combat? When was the last time ''we'' fought anyone? ==