Galahad I don't want to sound like some kind of a merciless guy here.I'm in no way that kind of person and I've never supported the weapons of mass destruction.I understand Helo's moral dilemma but we are talking about a war for survival.Either the one race or the other.I don't think the Cylons would hesitate to do it under the same surcumstances.
"It's not enough to survive, one has to be worthy of surviving." - William Adama.
Th ironic thing is that the greatest evidence that humanity wouldn't' be worthy of survival from a moral standpoint, would be the mass grave of ever single cylon.
The current conflict between human and cylon is little better than the one between Centauri and Narn. Neither are worthy of survival. "They are a dying race, we should let them die." That means either lettinfg the attitudes of mutually assured destrution die... or the people themselves.
After all Sheridan didn't hesitate to destroy the capital of Z'Ha'Dum.
Sheridans motivation for that, was not to wipe out ever single Shadow from existence... he wanted to end the war... save as many lives as possible by avoiding a prolonged combat. His reasoning was that if he dealt a crippling blow to the Shadows in their base of operations, it would make them think twice. It was the same motivation for the stunt he pulled with the telepaths. Buy sacrificing 30, he gave those that remained in the freezers a hope of being saved.
Sinclair went even further... in the comics as Valen, he talks of ending the war with the minimal amount of loss of life... on both sides - even his enemies.
Sheridan in my opinion was not trying to initiate ethnic cleansing, so the comparison isn't a good one.
Maybe we need to ask the question are they actually a race or a bunch of of machines gone out of order that need to be repaired.
Maybe to the cylons that question is just as relevant to us as we make it to them. Sure we are there creators, but they in turn see us as created beings... and broken at that.
If they were an intelligent race wouldn't start a genocide for no reason.
Does that mean all Germans should be judged by the same yardstick as the Nazis? Or any civilization be judged by it's leaders or predecessors?
There are already shockwaves running through the cylon political world. Who is to say that they will forever be led by murderous factions.
For peace to have a chance, it takes key players on both sides to realise the futility of continually wiping out your enemy... but someone has to take the risk, someone has to be brave and risk that first step.