It seemed he had really but the Nexu amongst the pigeons but that was to be expected – people tended to respond when someone had a different opinion to them. Of course, he was not the only one who held issues with the stated mission and he nodded in greeting to the Knight who used his species’ logical mind to lay out his points. Naturally, not everyone agreed with him and he was fine with that.
Was a boring Galaxy where everyone thought the same way.
What was a little bit of a concern was the bitterness that was thrown his way by one Knight in particular. He raised an eyebrow in the face of her emotion but otherwise didn’t react and let her have her say. Getting frustrated when someone dared to disagree with you was a bad sign in his opinion but he supposed he hadn’t been exactly placid in his own argument.
He waited until she had spoken before replying.
“It is the opinion of one Master that any argument that starts with fear of what might happen is an argument that is not mindful of emotions.” He countered without heat, maintaining eye contact, “And I believe it is reasonable to expect the person who will lead this mission, this advance, to defend her position. Jedi often stand alone and she will stand alone more than most – you may all support her but as leader she must shoulder burdens greater than a discussion with a friend who respects her, even if he may disagree with her position.”
The next counter to himself was one reasoned based on history and he could very much respect that – he had studied history at college while training to become a police officer. It was a passion that continued into his time as a Jedi as well. He met the eyes of the Jedi Knight who spoke up with a genuine smile.
“To argue against tying ourselves to a military and governments is not the same as being passive. I don’t counsel to ‘not act’ but rather to avoid acting in this way. Can anyone here say that I have not been active in attempting to bring the fight to those who would harm and abuse the people? Sith included. I was on Dathomir.” He countered smoothly, “As for the Clone Wars – acting as Generals and soldiers, actively chasing the Sith with outright war they enticed the Jedi into joining to stab them in the back while they were distracted pursuing a righteous war. Sounds an awful lot like what has been suggested today.”
He gestured around.
“The last time the Jedi were soldiers, Sidious used our distraction in the war, in our pursuit of Dooku, to undo us and bring about an Empire that subjugated trillions. We failed the people.” He raised a hand, “Further back still; Revan and Malek went to war and convinced many Jedi to go with them. They came back from the war as Sith, having fallen to the emotion and horrors of war. Of seeing ‘the bigger picture’ as worth any action. Can we not all agree that the Jedi’s track record of turning ourselves into soldiers and Generals has been disastrous?”