LAST EDITED ON Dec-01-01 AT 03:53 PM (EST)

>I recognize that Starfleet doesn't believe it's purpose is to fight
>wars. However, you build a craft that has shields, miliary grade
>weapons, teach all your captains how to fight, have a security staff,
>and in general treat your crews with military discipline, you have a
>military force.

Starfleet is a military organization. In terms of structure, it's military. In terms of firepower, it's military. In terms of focus, it isn't, but only barely. The fact that most of the ships are designed to hold civilians doesn't convince me that the Federation is unaware of what Starfleet really is, and always has been. (For that matter, any organization where a good portion of the ship carries sidearms as a matter of course...) The reason why nobody comes out and says that Starfleet is the military wing of the UFP is because the UFP is supposed to be a non-military organization - its whole purpose is a union of planets who have security without pointing guns at one another. (Also, I'd be willing to bet that's a selling point for the Federation. Romulans have a military, the UFP has Starfleet.)

Considering how utopian Trek is supposed to be, though, it's sort of unnecessary to read too much into Starfleet's purpose and design. Starfleet consists almost completely of The Good Guys, and part of being The Good Guys, I suppose, is having an exploration ship that can take on lethal opposing craft and come out on top with regularity.
-Eliot "Not getting into the Galaxy-class bashing for my own reasons" Lefebvre
-=()=-
We're only given a little time in our lives to waste. Make the most of it.
Electronic Transcendence Productions
Producer of, um, stuff for an unspecified time-period.
Thoughts of the moment, and such