Y'know... I wasn't going to chime in on this board again until I actually had my story done, but this....
(Looking back over what I have written, what you are about to read? I am being less than kind in some places. However, I cannot point to anything that I have written that is incorrect, and thus do not feel motivated to change any of it. I simply hope that you are not too thin-skinned. Recognize that I intend this as a clue-hammer. It is clear that you are lacking vital bits of Clue, and I am attempting to apply them to you.)
---------------
Because as we all know, human beings are scum.
[Um, yes?]
{No. Morality is a psuedo-evolutionary advantage. Most of the people you meet in this life will have a deep-core drive to Be Good People, or at least be able to justify to themselves that they are. This is true. Deal with it and move on. If you somehow manage to *integrate* it and react accordingly, your life will even improve.}
That is the thesis, right? That we're basically awful to everything and thus can't have nice things without destroying the world. It certainly seems to be the point you're driving at here.
[Pretty much.]
{Apparently, your base assumptions are incorrect. This, then, explans the flaws in your logic. As further disproof, notice that the world, on the whole - and particularly the bits that you almost certainly live in - just doesn't suck that badly. Notice that we as a species have had the power to wipe ourselves out of existence for decades, and somehow haven't gotten around to it yet. Proofs by existance is strong. If you have disproof, i would like to hear it.}
[You don't really have to change it. Just give both Boskonians and their adversaries very good reasons WHY they didn't just go "You know, we're not winning this war fast enough. Handwavium just isn't letting us make cool weapons. I think that I'll just remote control pilot a few ships with fusion reactors going at really damn high speeds and ram them into cities, worlds and what-not. Blow em up real good. It wouldn't take all that many to render the entire solar system uninhabitable." I mean, there must be a reason. Say somebody early in the war dropped a colony on australia on something and that made them make a treaty in antarctica or something and agreed to not do that. Or something. I dunno.]
{Because they're not genocidal psychopaths. What they are is power-hungry, greedy, and utterly immoral. Rendering noticeable chunks of the solar system uninhabitable (even if they were successful) it just doesn't do them any good. They want money, and nice places to stay, and power, and people to own and abuse, and peole to be afraid of them in large numbers and respect them for the crushing power they bring to bear. Ultimate end-goal is utter dominance over the solar system - and every bit they destroy now is one more bit that they can't dominate later. I'd trust "barely enlightened self-interest" out of these guys *long* before I'd trust any sort of treaty. Why would they care what treaty's they've signed? Oh, sure, there'll be a point int he process, once they have essentially complete dominance over fenspace, when they might start demanding concessions from the Eath in exchange for not blowing away civilian soft targets, but that's not the sort of trick you pull until *after* you know that you've got enough power to make sure that you can folow through, regardless of what they do.}
{To look at things another way, let's consider what happens if the Boskonians make a serious attempt to destroy, let's say... New York City. Just for the symbolism, they bring down the Significant Accellerated Mass on the remnants of the World Trade Center. Assume they actually *succeed*. Not that they would, but assume they do....}
{*Please* tell me that you've got enough grasp of Ominous Foreshadowing to know what happens next. *Please*.}
{...and now remember that the Boskonians don't *have* a population of Potentially Sympathetic Civilians to melt back in to. I *guarantee* that a mix of small numbers od dishonorably discharged SF and large numbers of random thug trash running wavetech off of "crush kill loot rape murder destroy" won't be able to stand up to multiple brigade-strength units of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who run their wavetech off of "Visit bloody Justice on the evildoers and protect everything that we hold dear." I *guarantee* it.}
{...and for something like this? As far as the Armed Services are concerned, Brigades would be chump change.}
{EDIT: and, having read the bottom of your post "...and why don't we spread wings and really fly anymore?" - well, I honestly think that part of it is that the present has accelerated. We don't need to look far ahead to find the New Worldshaping Thing - we just have to wait a few years. Fenspace stories are more often about People than Stuff. The People are doing and using Stuff, but it's the People that are the important part. It seems a lot of sci-fi is like that these days - start with a few "push the envelope" bits, and see how people will react. That having been said... well, if it bothers you, why not try to fix that in your own small way? Come up with a few ideas/outlines of the sort of stories you'd like to see written. Throw them together in a thread on our "Other People's Fanfiction" board. It'll be a little off-topic, but I really don't think anyone will mind. You're sure to get some useful feedback. Maybe someone will decide to write one of them. Maybe that someone will be you.}
(Looking back over what I have written, what you are about to read? I am being less than kind in some places. However, I cannot point to anything that I have written that is incorrect, and thus do not feel motivated to change any of it. I simply hope that you are not too thin-skinned. Recognize that I intend this as a clue-hammer. It is clear that you are lacking vital bits of Clue, and I am attempting to apply them to you.)
---------------
Because as we all know, human beings are scum.
[Um, yes?]
{No. Morality is a psuedo-evolutionary advantage. Most of the people you meet in this life will have a deep-core drive to Be Good People, or at least be able to justify to themselves that they are. This is true. Deal with it and move on. If you somehow manage to *integrate* it and react accordingly, your life will even improve.}
That is the thesis, right? That we're basically awful to everything and thus can't have nice things without destroying the world. It certainly seems to be the point you're driving at here.
[Pretty much.]
{Apparently, your base assumptions are incorrect. This, then, explans the flaws in your logic. As further disproof, notice that the world, on the whole - and particularly the bits that you almost certainly live in - just doesn't suck that badly. Notice that we as a species have had the power to wipe ourselves out of existence for decades, and somehow haven't gotten around to it yet. Proofs by existance is strong. If you have disproof, i would like to hear it.}
[You don't really have to change it. Just give both Boskonians and their adversaries very good reasons WHY they didn't just go "You know, we're not winning this war fast enough. Handwavium just isn't letting us make cool weapons. I think that I'll just remote control pilot a few ships with fusion reactors going at really damn high speeds and ram them into cities, worlds and what-not. Blow em up real good. It wouldn't take all that many to render the entire solar system uninhabitable." I mean, there must be a reason. Say somebody early in the war dropped a colony on australia on something and that made them make a treaty in antarctica or something and agreed to not do that. Or something. I dunno.]
{Because they're not genocidal psychopaths. What they are is power-hungry, greedy, and utterly immoral. Rendering noticeable chunks of the solar system uninhabitable (even if they were successful) it just doesn't do them any good. They want money, and nice places to stay, and power, and people to own and abuse, and peole to be afraid of them in large numbers and respect them for the crushing power they bring to bear. Ultimate end-goal is utter dominance over the solar system - and every bit they destroy now is one more bit that they can't dominate later. I'd trust "barely enlightened self-interest" out of these guys *long* before I'd trust any sort of treaty. Why would they care what treaty's they've signed? Oh, sure, there'll be a point int he process, once they have essentially complete dominance over fenspace, when they might start demanding concessions from the Eath in exchange for not blowing away civilian soft targets, but that's not the sort of trick you pull until *after* you know that you've got enough power to make sure that you can folow through, regardless of what they do.}
{To look at things another way, let's consider what happens if the Boskonians make a serious attempt to destroy, let's say... New York City. Just for the symbolism, they bring down the Significant Accellerated Mass on the remnants of the World Trade Center. Assume they actually *succeed*. Not that they would, but assume they do....}
{*Please* tell me that you've got enough grasp of Ominous Foreshadowing to know what happens next. *Please*.}
{...and now remember that the Boskonians don't *have* a population of Potentially Sympathetic Civilians to melt back in to. I *guarantee* that a mix of small numbers od dishonorably discharged SF and large numbers of random thug trash running wavetech off of "crush kill loot rape murder destroy" won't be able to stand up to multiple brigade-strength units of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who run their wavetech off of "Visit bloody Justice on the evildoers and protect everything that we hold dear." I *guarantee* it.}
{...and for something like this? As far as the Armed Services are concerned, Brigades would be chump change.}
{EDIT: and, having read the bottom of your post "...and why don't we spread wings and really fly anymore?" - well, I honestly think that part of it is that the present has accelerated. We don't need to look far ahead to find the New Worldshaping Thing - we just have to wait a few years. Fenspace stories are more often about People than Stuff. The People are doing and using Stuff, but it's the People that are the important part. It seems a lot of sci-fi is like that these days - start with a few "push the envelope" bits, and see how people will react. That having been said... well, if it bothers you, why not try to fix that in your own small way? Come up with a few ideas/outlines of the sort of stories you'd like to see written. Throw them together in a thread on our "Other People's Fanfiction" board. It'll be a little off-topic, but I really don't think anyone will mind. You're sure to get some useful feedback. Maybe someone will decide to write one of them. Maybe that someone will be you.}