A discussion of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the projected cost of invading Japan turns into a Star Wars analogy about whose deaths a government will accept. The clone and droid armies can shield the public from the political cost of casualties because there are no families waiting for official letters. The comparison raises an ethical problem for the Republic: its clones are living soldiers created for war and denied a choice about service. Planetary defence forces still fight on both sides, so the clone and droid armies are treated here as shock troops rather than the entire war effort.
Notable Point · 53:10-54:22
Clone troops and the politics of military casualties
The Clone Wars provides a fictional analogy for how governments can distance the public from the deaths of troops sent on the most dangerous missions.