GORDITAS PRESS RELEASE
January 14, 2002

[Transcript of the Prime Minister of Gorditas address to the Mapp]

Ladies and Gentlemen…

You are well aware of the events of the past several days, leading to the Joint Gorditas-Lindsholm Offensive against the nation of Rattanjeetland. It has originally and continues to exist that the official Gorditian foreign policy is that a nation as a whole is responsible for its actions. The responsibilities of a nation cannot be solely placed on the government or the leader, for each and every person is partially responsible. In the case of Buenos Altos, especially responsible are its government and military. However, the nation's civilians for their support of the dictator or if they were unsatisfied, their non-action to strike against their rulers holds them responsible to a lesser degree.

In a press release discovered after the Offensive began, the Ethnarch claims that,

'Just as El-Hussaq's former crimes are never blamed on Free El-Hussaq, a portion of the former El-Hussaq, the crimes of those committed by Buenos Altos former to the abidcation cannot be blamed on the government after the abdication has occurred.'

The nation of Gorditas does not and never have shared this viewpoint. Although, this appears to be a strong outlook… it is one that the Gorditian government feels is the best way to prevent future Buenos Altos' aggression, which is one of the original Gorditian objectives in this campaign.

It should be corrected that in the issue of Free El-Hussaq, Gorditas originally objected against not limiting that nation to Riksholm Treaty guidelines. However, in the days following the Treaty, since FREEH abided by Treaty guidelines on its own accord… we failed to see the immediate need to reanimate the motion to have FREEH follow the Treaty.

As stated earlier, we hold all of Buenos Altos responsible for the nation's actions. Despite this belief however…our terms of negotiation for Buenos Altos, although not to be explicitly revealed here, were designed to only limit Buenos Altos' militarily. Remember… Buenos Altos was formally the most militarized nation on the Mapp. Spiritually, economically, domestically, and politically, our proposed stipulations would not have affected Buenos Altos. In fact… our wish to limit Buenos Altos' military construction indirectly forces Buenos Altos to explore other avenues of growth. Note that we desired to only limit construction of military structures in Buenos Altos, not forbid it.

However, the Buenos Altos government, under the control of the Rattanjeetland government, rejected this military construction limitation. In the eyes of Gorditas… this was a sign that the level of bellicosity remained strong in the minds of Buenos Altos' rulers…which suggested Buenos Altos' military aggression would continue in the future.

Furthermore, the reasoning behind such severe limitations, is because history has revealed that even the limitations of the Riksholm Treaty did not effectively prevent hostilities. This fact is demonstrated by the numerous military conflicts that occurred after the signing of the Riksholm Treaty, including "The Nathartica Scandal," "The Shannli Crisis," "Dickskrieg," and "The Zeradit War."

To compensate for a reduced Buenos Altos military, other provisions were offered to Buenos Altos. They were designed to protect Buenos Altos from annexation by foreign powers. Yet; these were also rapidly rejected by the Rattanjeetarr government. This rejection by Rattanjeetland suggested that a planned and aggressive Rattanjeetarr annexation of Buenos Altos was to occur.

Rattanjeetland's powerful and hasty rejection to the above terms made it apparent that they did not intend to compromise. Such an unwillingness to negotiate paralleled Lord Somorset's reluctance to negotiate during the initial cease fire, in which Gorditas was not contacted once by Lord Somorset. With such poor attempts to negotiate, first by Lord Somorset, than by the Rattanjeetarr government, the Gorditas government realized the futility of continuing the cease fire, under the belief that a aggressive maneuver by Rattanjeetland was being planned. This provocative maneuver materialized in the form the predictable annexation of Beunos Altos' resources, population, structures, structures, and the majority of its territory. The suddenness of this annexation surprised even the most optimistic in Gorditas and verified that it was the original intention of Rattanjeetland to annex Buenos Altos, despite the Ethnarch's claim it was for Buenos Alto's protection.

Similar to the policy that a nation is responsible for its actions, Gorditas' policy also announces that the crimes and responsibilities of a nation cannot be forgotten or abolished by handing over control of the nation to another party through annexation. This policy was explicitly explained to the Ethnarch. It is the perspective of myself and Gorditas that Rattanjeetland understood both our policy and the wrongs committed by Buenos Altos. Therefore, our standpoint is that Rattanjeetland assumed all responsibility for past Buenos Altos' actions by annexing the nation…an action that was provocative in nature. Therefore, at 15:40 Hours a joint military offensive between Gorditas and Lindsholm was organized against Rattanjeetland.

It will be argued that Buenos Altos continues to exist and therefore, Rattanjeetland was wrongfully attacked since all retributions of the Phoney War should be directed at the original aggressor nation, Buenos Altos. However… by reducing Buenos Altos to what is realistically a, "ditch beside a highway"… this ploy by the Ethnarch to create a technicality only offends the our, as well as, the Mapp's intelligence. We believe that Rattanjeetland's near total annexation of Buenos Altos is equivalent to a total annexation since he annexed the entire functional and political body of Buenos Altos.

Tonight, we have learned that the Ethnarch has formally surrendered to the Gorditas-Lindsholm Coalition. The death and destruction that has occurred in the past several days has tired us all…but rest assured that it is the wish of the Supreme Viceroy and myself to find a fair and just resolution to this matter...one that will avoid further bloodshed.

To the all citizens of the Mapp,

Goodnight.