Originally posted by Ancient 1
The Atlantis Expedition is under the umbrella of the Antartic Treaty System (ATS), which is one of the more tenious international treaty systems because it sets aside the verious territorial claims to the continent (I'm not looking it up right now, but as I recall, there are at LEAST six such claims, many of which overlap). It was formed in the 1950s with the express purpose of making sure that the last wild place on earth that had not seen bloodshed or war could be used for the good of the entire planet. One of the most important and dearly held parts of the ATS is that it is not to be used for a military purpose. Essentially military troops are only allowed as support personnel to scientific expeditions (essentially running logistics).
The discovery of the Ancient Outpost (and particularly the weapons in it) would be a nightmare to deal with within both the implications of the treaty system itself (which contains some forty or fifty countries between the full members and the associate members), and with those countries that STILL have territorial claims. They don't give us a map location for the Ancient outpost, but what do you think would happen if it happened to be in that part that is claimed by the UK, Argentina, and Chile?
A biologist, or physicist, or other scientist, no matter how qualified within their own field does NOT have the training to deal with all of the governments involved. Nor were they likely acceptable to all the governments involved.
My guess is, that like chosing O'Neill for the SGC because he was the one American no one could object to, Weir was similarly chosen by the president as one of what was probably a limited number of candidates acceptable to the 20+ countries contributing to the Atlantis expedition.
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