[quote name='Max Power' timestamp='1353573556' post='3056147']
A really stupid but probably necessary statement:
The one war you ever lost, TOP... Argent and IRON stayed with you through it and lost that war right there with you. The loss was arguably even more devastating for them than it was for you, considering they didn't get an eventual shiny new MK treaty out of it. I don't know if you'll lose another, but if you do, you won't have your best friends in Argent and IRON there with you. That'll hurt in ways rational calculations don't pick up sometimes.[/quote]
There was a time where we worked well together--that's true. Staying together because we used to work well together is nostalgia, not wisdom.
TBH, the timing of these two course corrections is basically coincidental. There had always been a degree of clash with Argent because we wanted to be dynamic and disruptive, and they wanted to play conservative. Having never settled on a unified course or even established common values or methods, it was really only a matter of time.
Doubts about our relationship with IRON began well over a year ago when we stopped recognizing about 90% of the people on the IRON Council. Once MCRABT became the senior-most Councilor, the writing was on the wall.