There's a saying that I'm fond of. My joes usually hear it right before I smoke the piss out of them for doing something so monumentally boneheaded that the only option is to make them do pushups til their hands bleed while apologizing to the grass they're pushing in for wasting the oxygen it worked to hard to produce.
"You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes."
Actions have consequences, even in RP. That's basically the only thing that makes us an RP community rather than a bunch of occasionally connected fanfics. Now there's no question that Gen's actions kicked off a ish storm of epic proportions. That's what happens when you take a swing at one of the most well connected characters on the board, written by one of the most well connected writers on the board. If Gen had taken down some lowly Tier 2 company or something, no one would have given a flying kark. Instead, he went for Danger.
Now Mantic gets to inherit the mess. It's a big one alright, but it's what he signed up for when he agreed to take the job. It's his job to guide the faction through the coming months, and part of that means dealing with the existing messes. Now so far, he's dropped the ball so hard it might actually tunnel through to China. He's screwed the pooch so hard, the poor little doggy is going to need a cement mixer full of lidocaine to be able to sit for the next month.
It is not the job of a faction leader to dictate to the rest of the galaxy how they will interact with the faction. It is the job of the faction leader to guide their faction through the myriad plots and struggles as they happen. This is an ongoing event involving more than a few writers. Obstreperously declaring that everyone else should just deal with the fact that he doesn't want to deal with it is not going to help a damned thing.
The first month of a regime is always the trickiest. It's during this time that the leaders establish their reputation both within their faction and with outsiders. The same could be said of everything from the FO of the GR to the President of the United States. If he had picked up the reigns and steered his faction along to a mutually beneficial outcome, discussing potential plots with the other side and establishing stories rather than telling all involved to go pound sand, we wouldn't be having this discussion. We'd be praising him on his positive attitude and commenting to each other about how the GR was in good hands. Instead, this happened.
That's not to say it's too late. Mantic is new to the position. He's just getting his feet in the water, and I don't think anyone will hold this incident against him. If, that is, he's willing to admit the mistake and work with everybody, rather than getting his dander up and trying to take his toys and go home. The story will go on regardless. Whether or not it goes on with him at the helm of a Galactic Republic that is once more a viable mover and shaker within the RP community is entirely up to him.
