Thoughts on finishing the campaign.

I really don't think so, after going back and re reading all the dialogue in previous missions, there is nothing in particular to show that the USTF is in anyway particularly "good" guys or that the free peoples are the "bad" guys. While the war was most likely instigated by the UFP to their advantage, beyond some laughable corruption, nothing specifically shows any moral decide. Arguably everyone in the conflict is grey as fuck, it is a vary bare bones survivalist war, very realistic.

To be completely fair we do not really get a perspective on the enemy. We do not really know how their government works in depth, or what horrible crimes and amazing feats they might have done. Likewise the Martionesians civilian populations benefited hugely from this conflict unbeknown to them completely. Living in harmony is a great principle and all(and one i think space colonisation will if anything lend to) but you have to remember that COADE is a very non ideal societal situation. instead of planned and implemented societal engineering the Earth went to fart and a chunk of a billion people threw themselves onto the planets. So from that we already have a flawed survivalist favouring origin for the territories that DO survive. In addition this war will likely bring a lasting peace for a hundred years perhaps? The greatest civilian casualties were on Ganymede, outside of that this might be one of the smallest (by number of people) number of combatants killed in relation to territorial gain.

Also who are we kidding, this was inevitable if admiral daughter did not do the job then someone else would have, on top of the somewhat dubious claims of reactive material cut off from the USTF

I think this is Qswitched playing up a bit on the fact. Much like the children ice miners on Saturn's rings being a thinly veiled jab at coal mining children in the 1800's the "story" side of COADE is a pitch black comedy. It's kinda necessary to justify the fact that a space war is even occurring in such a brutal manner. But realistically i think the ending can be interpreted as an overly exited mom happily rolling in the fact that she is the single most powerful lady in the system. Otherwise it simply is not economical to "go commit some atrocities". If you win a war, and you get your neighbours house, then you burn it down, does it make much sense? The same thing happened at the end of WWII it is easier (and ludicrously more advantageous) to commit a small atrocity to break the final hardliners of the population(or shift the main pop mass) then move in sell Marsdonalds and Ares sneakers and cash the check. Not to mention the hazards of irradiating fully functioning resource mines, farms and population centres. I once saw a figure estimating that each human life was worth roughly a million dollars, so every loss in people is a hit to yourself (and your pocket book) if you win. And if you took the time to read the document "War Crimes" Paragraph 5 lines 3-4 "Simply remember that we're not here to destroy, to do Evil, to cause suffering, War crimes are a side effect of trying to win in every possible way we can. They are a means, not an end." 

Nah i get it it is just more fun to play devils advocate in any situation that feels black and white. But seriously is it really so insane to think that the USTF would not pull something similar given the opportunity? And even more so if anyone's "fault" it is that of the very free peoples themselves, after all they have a president and Parliament/senate of some sort. They democratically elected at least a majority of the necessary individuals who committed this. Also, im iffy on the exact numbers but if we take the UFP as the faction who moved the most humans the fastest to various colonies, then by defacto they should have the most people and in relation the most voting age individuals. So in the end if you want to blame anyone blame the free peoples themselves, they elected president mom, and the war more or less began, so they had an entire new election to "correct" the war with a new government, and hey they voted the same way again, so they put the word in your hand, even if you had to swing it. And before you go "Wait hey they were lied to and given propaganda and made ignorant through convoluted media!" No they were not. No population ever, EVER has a 100% the government said it so i believe it rate. Even Hitler was famously brought in on 33% of the vote. And unless the UFP has abolished and controls every media outlet in existence, then people most likely knew that things were not nearly so black and white, nor so clean cut. They were comfortable with life, they knew they were winning and they wanted to succeed. It is easy to point to president mom and admiral daughter and say "look there is dah bad guy" but if anyone is to blame it is the several billion Martian, Lunarian, Ceresian, etc

Perhaps, i just think it is not quite as black and white as UFP is the aggressor and USTF are innocent. Honestly the whole thing is just interesting to talk about. But it boils down to a simple question, Are military leaders always some sort of charismatic master mind that sweeps through and draws countless millions into their glory and power hungering plans? Or did the latent malaise of the UFP's populace not will it in a general sense, letting certain empowered individuals take care of the details? Think about it, if you had an enemy state whose political and ideological progenitors were responsible for the complete destruction of the Earth(an almost unmatchable crime) And in the face of that destruction ferried a small and ideologically sympathetic few off the Earth and towards planets and moons which gave them a resource advantage, all the while leaving you, the helpless non combatant in their war suffering a slow melting death were it not for the UFP's parent nations and organisations who prioritised YOU, and your family and as many as they could to save the very human race. I mean think about all the atrocities that happened in the past about arbitrary cultural devides, chunks of dirt that one nation wants but another has, religious squabbles etc. NOTHING IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF HUMAN KIND would compare to the absolute destruction of the Earth. Im not going to say that the third or fourth generation after the actual incident is guilty of it, but i think, culturally at least, you can see why it was not just perhaps the "be safe and prosperous crowd" but perhaps a very reasonable(though not morally justifiable) angered group of Martians who see the profitable descendants of the murderers of Gaia frolicking about laying claim to every asteroid possible and leveraging a future economic dominance over the UFP. Heck it makes the whole war more than justifiable, it was necessary, President mom and Admiral daughter were just the last rivet in the space-casket.

Yeah id agree.

When I am playing "The Fall of Titan" I play "Battle Against A True Hero" from Undertale. Really fit. His words really makes me feel bad about what I have done.

"In the war, everyone is evil." - told to me by my teacher.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPCMJC1Ig6s