STAR TREK TOS: Does anybody believe that Starfleet actually had an order authorizing genocide?

The point of that episode is that ANY war is primitive and brutal, The bloodless non-destructive “lukewarm” war waged between Eminiar and Vendicar was a never-ending aberration that must be ended by full exposure to the horrors of war. Whether by Enterprise executing GO24 or the belligerents’ automated fallback of exchanging planet-killing WMDs.

Here’s a little piece of how Barbara Babcock made Sgt. Esterhauz a legend.