"These deaths weigh heavy on my soul," she said, seeming to stifle a tear. "I know that is what a politician is supposed to say and I know that they rarely mean it but please believe that I am speaking these words with the utmost sincerity. Thirty-three young men died while following orders that initiated with me. Thirty-three people with families, children, lives. I will not try to justify their deaths with a lot of patriotic blathering. This was a tragedy and I want you all to know right now and understand that if we follow through with the course of action that I have set into motion today there will be more tragedies like this, some undoubtedly worse, and maybe too many for us to handle."
She stopped, wiping a tear from her face and clearing her throat before continuing. "Once the fighting began at the two bases, I ordered a general mobilization of the entire MPG. My purpose for this action was nothing less than to take control of this planet, to seize it from WestHem in the name of the citizens of Mars. This goal was successful. As of 1520 hours today, the Planet of Mars is firmly in the hands of the MPG."
She took a deep breath. "This is where my actions will stop without further consent from you, the Martian people. Most of you are probably trying to digest what I have just told you. You are saying to yourselves in disbelief 'My God, Mars has rebelled against WestHem'. But that is not what has happened, not yet. Mars has done nothing, I have. I have initiated preliminary actions to secure this planet in the hope that we will rebel, that we will tell WestHem that we no longer wish to be a part of their corrupt system, that we are going to carve out our own destiny from now on. But I will not, I cannot go any further without the consent of the people in whose name I am doing this.
"I've told you several times during the course of this speech that you will have the opportunity to evaluate my actions. I will now explain just what I mean by that. I am calling for a vote on this matter. I will give you two days to think it over and then you may cast your ballots via your Internet terminals starting at 0800 local time on Friday. The question will be simple. Do you wish to declare autonomy from the Federal Alliance of the Western Hemisphere and enforce this declaration by any means available and necessary?
"This is a question that requires a simple yes or no answer. But this yes or no will be the most important you will ever answer in your lives. Your future, your children's future, and your grandchildren's future rides on this vote so I want you to discuss it with your friends, your families, and then vote how your heart tells you to. Due to the gravity of this decision I will require more than a two-thirds majority of yes votes before I will consider the measure passed. I will also require greater than ninety-five percent voter participation before I will consider a yes vote to be binding.
"If the vote is no, either through lack of participation, lack of two-thirds majority, or outright defeat I will immediately stand down the MPG and release all federal agents and WestHem soldiers. I will turn myself and my conspirators over to federal custody to stand trial on whatever charges they can initiate. Lieutenant Governor Benton will assume the governorship and things, for the most part, will go back to the way they were before. If this is your wish, then vote no. If you do vote no however, you will never again have the right to complain about the unfairness of the WestHem system or the unfairness of their rule.
"But before you vote yes on the matter I want some hard facts out on the table for you to peruse. To gloss these facts over would be the worst sort of hypocrisy on my part. I want to make sure that each and every one of you knows exactly what a yes will get us into.
"Right now the timing for a revolt against WestHem could not be better. Mars and Earth are nearly as far apart as they ever get. It will take at least twelve weeks before WestHem can send any troops our way, but believe me when I say that they will send them. Mars is worth trillions of dollars to WestHem and is a primary source of food and steel. They will not simply let us go. If we want Mars to be free, we are going to have to fight them for it.
"Will we win?" She gave a cynical smile. "I certainly hope so but it will not be a cakewalk in any case. No matter what we do, no matter how prepared we are for them, WestHem marines will establish orbit around this planet. We do not have sufficient resources or people to prevent that. WestHem marines will establish beachheads outside of our cities. We do not have the resources or people to prevent that either.
"'So we cannot win', some of you may be saying right now. That is not true. In order to take this planet from us the WestHem marines are going to have to march from their beachheads to our cities and occupy them. Sounds simple? It would be if not for the Martian Planetary Guard. This is exactly the situation the MPG was formed to prevent in the first place. Now you have all seen Internet shows deriding our planetary guard force, proclaiming it to be nothing more than a 'speed bump', good only for holding off an EastHem invasion long enough for 'real' soldiers from WestHem to get here." She smiled. "Well, I believe we can do a little better than that. Under General Jackson's command the MPG is a highly and specifically trained group with excellent equipment and tactics. Their very reason for existence is to prevent, not just hold off, an armed invasion of our planet and if WestHem comes in here thinking that they're dealing with a simple speed bump they're going to have a nasty surprise in store for them.
"But as the MPG stands right now we do not have enough combat personnel for a prolonged combat operation. We need volunteers to sign up for service and, if you vote for rebellion, we need you right away in order to give us time to train you prior to the arrival of the WestHems. If you sign up you must know that you may die or be horribly wounded in this war. We may, despite all of our preparations, lose this war and you may be arrested and charged with treason if this occurs. I want that to be right up front and in the open.
"We may lose. I cannot, and General Jackson cannot guarantee success. If we lose we will be subjected to occupation by WestHem soldiers for the foreseeable future. We will be subjected to even greater persecution and prejudice than we already have to deal with. We will never be trusted, never! If you need a graphic example of this take a look at the fate of the Asian descendents of Earth. More than a hundred years ago they initiated and lost World War III. On Earth today it is still legal to discriminate against Asians, even those whose ancestors were American or Canadian citizens during the war.
"In addition to the tactics of fighting WestHem we have to worry about one other thing. Fuel. Fuel to run our tanks, our aircraft, our space fighters. This fuel, as you know, comes from Jupiter and is supplied to us by WestHem. It is the one resource that we are not self-sufficient in. If we are to successfully fight WestHem and gain independence, we must secure a fuel supply. Now obviously WestHem is not going to keep sending fuel ships here. That leaves us with the unappetizing necessity of trading with EastHem for fuel.
"Aside from the distastefulness of doing business with an entity that once bombed our cities and killed our people, this opens up several variables to the equation of independence. For one, I have not yet contacted EastHem and asked if they will assist us; if they will trade fuel for our food surplus. They may refuse. If they do, all is lost. EastHem is going to have to make a decision of it's own.