Looking Back on The Embassy
An Exploration of The Embassy Incident and Its Consequences
Written by Le Libertie and Istillian
On February 14, a citizen created a Grand Hall thread questioning why the Europeian Republican Navy (ERN) was involved in the hold of a small region with no more than a dozen nations. This was the spark that would set off Europeia’s lengthy discussion on its role in The Embassy raid. Spanning three days with over three thousand views, 176 replies, and 38 citizens participating, this resulting discussion alone stands as one of the threads in the Grand Hall that has received the most engagement. But what exactly made the ERN’s participation in this hold, compared to previous ones, uniquely controversial? And other than engagement, what were the consequences of both the controversy and its following discussion?
Looking back can shed light on how The Embassy operation was first approved. On January 22, it was announced to sailors that the ERN had struck an informal agreement with Lily, an independent military organization, and were not to re-tag one another's hits. The only catch was that in order to avoid them retagging, the ERN should then construct embassies with Crystal Falls every time they hit a region. This agreement seemed to be going smoothly, until late on the afternoon of February 13, when Grand Admiral Kazaman was approached by Lily. They asked him if the ERN would be willing to participate in a planned raid of The Embassy. While the ERN was involved in a Valentine's Day-themed operation during that major update, they still had the opportunity to contribute to the hold by serving as pilers later on. “My initial thoughts weren't very deep, to be honest,” the grand admiral admitted. “I had a lot on my plate,” he added, and “checked the invitation off as a nice opportunity to work with Lily.” Just a few minutes later, this operation was communicated with Pichtonia, and the president consented. Overall, the process in which The Embassy operation was approved was remarkably simple and straightforward. Nothing at this point indicated that this operation was anything but ordinary. But as time would eventually reveal, this decision to involve Europeia in The Embassy raid would prove extraordinary in its consequences.
Founded in 2015, The Embassy was a region known for its collection of embassies. With over 3,500 embassies, it had had the most of any region and proudly stated so on its world factbook entry. Never having been a large region, The Embassy struggled with periods of inactivity, and its security was weak due to the inactivity of its founder, who had ceased to exist over two years previously. Still, its status as an embassy collector made the small region well known by players. With its notability, however, came somewhat divided views. Some players felt that the activity of embassy collection was at best a nuisance and at worst a region cheapening a critical tool of regional connection into a triviality. Criticism was further raised at the region’s failure to withhold embassy requests to fascist regions. On the other hand, players saw The Embassy as a harmless region pursuing niche activity that they simply enjoyed.
These clashing perspectives on The Embassy came to the forefront when discussion began in the Grand Hall. On one side were the operation criticizers, who felt that the Navy’s participation in The Embassy hold was an action that did not reflect Europeia’s values. “This is not something we should be endorsing,” former Grand Admiral Calvin Coolidge expressed. Peeps, another former grand admiral, disapproved of the operation as well, calling The Embassy hold distinct from the “nondestructive operations” that were typically conducted by the ERN. Others agreed with this sentiment and called upon President Pichtonia to recall the ERN from the operation.
On the other side, a substantial amount of citizens firmly disagreed, asserting that The Embassy was a trivial region undeserving of the concern expressed by operation criticizers. Many challenged claims that this operation was particularly unique in its destructiveness. The Embassy’s insignificance in regional size was also emphasized. Lastly, others questioned whether a region whose lax embassy policies led to ties to fascist groups deserved any defense whatsoever. In the discussion, Rotasu bluntly stated that “The Embassy is not something that in any way deserves a defense.” HEM agreed, adding his opinion that The Embassy was a "region of trophies” where “nothing of value will be lost”.
Still, criticizers against The Embassy operation persisted. Calvin Coolidge emphasized that his issue with the ERN’s participation was that “it represents a shift from our military's policy to not tamper with the region we are targeting unless there's an FA reason to do so”, arguably prompting Calvin to run in the upcoming presidential election. The Calvin/Istillian ticket shortly thereafter released a public statement, on February 16, prior to the release of their platform, slamming the Embassy operation as "not something the ERN should have been involved in." Calvin later added: "If we didn't think about [The Embassy operation] too much, I'd prefer we say so, own it, and vow to not let it happen again."
The citizenry’s patience in waiting for a response from the presidential administration came to an end when Grand Admiral Kazaman released a statement with the president. The disclosure justified the Navy’s decision and rehashed previous arguments emphasizing The Embassy’s triviality, while also acknowledging the region’s previous and current connections to fascism. On February 16, President Pichtonia and Vice President Kuramia released their platform for re-election, copping major criticism in regards to the lack of response on The Embassy incident, prompting a response from Pichtonia saying that "a statement will now indeed be forthcoming on The Embassy situation." And on February 17, President Pichtonia released a personal statement on The Embassy operation on his own behalf, calling for all military operations to be approved by the president personally, announcing an update to the ERN's guidelines (then not visible to the public), and also issuing an apology. But was this statement too late? The president released this statement three days after the incident was brought to public attention in the Grand Hall, while in the middle of an election race, and while trying to manage the bombardment of criticism at the time.
With the running of Calvin Coolidge in the presidential race, it seems a fair comparison could be drawn between the tickets of one re-affirming Europeian values in response to The Embassy operation, and the other being a tried, tested, and popular official, suffering from poor communication at a critical time in their campaign. In the responses to The Europeian Citizens' private media poll, released on February 5, Pichtonia achieved a 95.5 percent approval rating, with one comment response saying "Pichto[nia]'s astronomical popularity seems likely to seems like it will probably just cause many of those potential competitors to bide there time and hope he doesn't seek a third term." The end of term executive satisfaction poll analysis from the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation, conducted between February 19 to February 22, in a large contrast, reported a 76.9 percent approval for president Pichtonia. Consistent comments were brought up about The Embassy, with one comment noting "I feel like the biggest problem is communication and lack of responsiveness around The Embassy. Unfortunate timing for Pichto[nia]."
The consequences of ERN’s participation in the hold are numerous. On February 14, a repeal of Europeia's Commendation was drafted and submitted to the World Assembly's Security Council, although it received some damning criticism and was not supported. Furthermore, the Security Council successfully passed a liberation of The Embassy, and during the drafting process respondents criticized Europeia's involvement in the operation - during the drafting process the ERN withdrew its forces from The Embassy, and the final liberation made no mention of the ERN's, or any other military involvement. On February 16, the Senate began discussion on The Naval Policy Act (2021), passing with a vote of 5 senators for, and one against, and President Calvin Coolidge signing off on the act on March 8. On March 8, Lily decided to withdraw from the agreement with the ERN after Grand Admiral Peeps had to decline an operation with them due to our new policies. As such, the ERN no longer creates embassies with Crystal Falls as policy.
Today, however, The Embassy is slowly rebuilding. It has already secured over 1,800 embassies, a significant improvement from the mere handful it held immediately following the departure of Lily. The consequences for Europeia remain though, both within our region, and in the foreign sphere; but this event also allowed us to solidify our Independent ideology once again, not without a cost, but in our failures there have certainly been worthwhile lessons. Our citizens should be proud of the steps we made to rectify a misjudgment, and will hopefully now not allow a repeat of this incident again.
