you guys are talking about these characters like they're rationale people who actually make decisions about what they do in the series!

you should know by now that everyone in the SEED universe actually has no free will of their own. Instead they operate according to three creeds.

True sources of character action in SEED:
1. Whatever Fukuda's wife thinks would make a good story/moral point.
2. Whatever will sell more model kits.
3. Whatever has been done in old Gundam series that can be directly ripped off, plus new sparkly animation.