Praeothmin wrote:
And Gandalf, I have to agree that, although some of your points about not needing to be a military genious to be a good politician were, IMO, truly valid (as you demonstrated, no, as you proved with the George Bush example), most of your other rebuttals were simply repeating Ad Vitam Eternam that those points had already been debunked by so and so, without providing a shred of evidence.
It is correct, that a good politician have not to be a military genious.
Nobody can be good at all areas: family policy, social policy, environmental policy, economy policy, foreign policy, labour policy, safety policy, financial policy, defence policy, health policy, traffic policy , educational policy ...
That's why a good politician has to know its own limitations and consult more qualified people and delegate some tasks.
But the position of Gandalf is not a question about a military genious.
Even if Amidala is no military genious, she should know the magnitude of the shields of the trade ship and of the weapons on their fighters.
She lives in this universum. There is no reason to think something else. She doesn't have to know special technological specifications or exact figures.
For example, the most people on this Earth doesn't know a lot about the armor of a tank. But they have a roughly conception and nobody with commonsense would attack a tank with pieces of cotton wool. That would not be a question of military genious but absolute idiocy.
To attack the Trade Federation Ship with fighters would be the same absolute idiocy, if "thousands of fighters couldn't hope to match a single capitol ship".
But there is no indication, that Amidala is such an idiot.
For this, I have to assume, that an attack on the Trade Federation Ship had have a realisitic chance of succes.
But that is only possible, if the weapons on fighters are a real threat to the shields of capitol ships.
