With regards to your second point, the Nazi like society in The Other Side, I got the impression that Jack was under considerable pressure to bring back some tangible results of gate travel in the form of big honkin' space guns. In almost four years, by that point, they have very little in terms of weaponry and what allies the Tau'ri have have proved to be unwilling to involve themselves, as we touched on earlier :) I think Jack is suffering from a huge amount of frustration, because he also wants to see that type of benefit. He's a soldier - he understands the concept of needing something tangible with which to defend themselves from any more Goa'uld invasion attempts. That doesn't mean that he doesn't understand the need for allies, or Daniel's need to find out more about the operation of the Universe, but he's tired of doors slamming in their faces. I think, to a certain extent, he doesn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. He doesn't want to be forced to consider what their motives are, which is why he reacts so badly to Daniel's attempts to dig beneath the surface. He wants a mission where he can walk through the gate, get some defence and walk back through again with no injuries and Earth in a better defensive position. He won't face facts until Alar makes a racist remark about Teal'c to his face and he can't hide his head in the sand any longer.
To give Jack credit he does apologise to Daniel (kind of :)), and make Daniel dig. And as for what he does to Alar... well, I see that as a combination of wounded pride, pissed offness and cold, hard pragmatism.
He knows what his superiors are like. He knows that they'll overlook Alar's racist leanings in exchange for what he knows - they did it with Nazi scientists and nothing's changed since then. And I think, on some level, he feels that Alar needs to be punished for committing attempted genocide, or rather for continuing the attempted genocide started by his father. And so he sets himself up as judge, jury and executioner.
He has no right to do that, of course, but the one saving grace in my eyes, and probably his own, is that he did warn Alar what would happen if he followed them. But even that is a cold comfort. Alar was limited in his choices, and Jack knew that. It probably lets him sleep at night though. And I suspect that during his Special Ops days Jack may have done worse - but he's been changed from the suicidal man in the movie, not just through Daniel's influence but the knowledge that out there is something bigger indeed.
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To give Jack credit he does apologise to Daniel (kind of :)), and make Daniel dig. And as for what he does to Alar... well, I see that as a combination of wounded pride, pissed offness and cold, hard pragmatism.
He knows what his superiors are like. He knows that they'll overlook Alar's racist leanings in exchange for what he knows - they did it with Nazi scientists and nothing's changed since then. And I think, on some level, he feels that Alar needs to be punished for committing attempted genocide, or rather for continuing the attempted genocide started by his father. And so he sets himself up as judge, jury and executioner.
He has no right to do that, of course, but the one saving grace in my eyes, and probably his own, is that he did warn Alar what would happen if he followed them. But even that is a cold comfort. Alar was limited in his choices, and Jack knew that. It probably lets him sleep at night though. And I suspect that during his Special Ops days Jack may have done worse - but he's been changed from the suicidal man in the movie, not just through Daniel's influence but the knowledge that out there is something bigger indeed.
That's my thoughts anyway ::g::