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star wars - Was anyone else suspicious of the sudden convenient appearance of a Clone army?


Related but not duplicate: Why did the Jedi take the clone army without further thought? and How does Obi-Wan reconcile the fact that the Separatists apparently commissioned the clone army for the Republic?


In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones we see Chancellor Palpatine had only just barely received his emergency powers and suddenly he already has a huge clone army big enough to rescue the Jedi and fight the Separatist army on Geonosis. If the Galactic Senate actually believed they were just now allowing Palpatine to create an army for the Republic, then weren't they a little suspicious when the existence of a pre-requested, fully grown, battle ready clone army is revealed very soon afterward?


Of course we know the Jedi were suspicious since Taun We claimed a Jedi ordered the army for the Republic and they know that's not true. However the Jedi don't do much about it. They even go on to serve as generals over the Clones in the war, knowing full well that someone had pre-ordered these clones without Senate or Jedi Council approval. They even learn the Sith ordered the Clone army but still they do nothing and tell no one.


MY QUESTION: Was anyone else suspicious of the sudden convenient appearance of a Clone army? I realize that initially they, like the Jedi, felt that there was no other choice than to use the Clone army at first but the Clone Wars lasted from 22 BBY to 19 BBY! Three years is a long time for the entire Republic to use and trust a conveniently pre-ordered army of unknown origin.


One would think that the sudden convenient appearance of a ready for battle clone army right after the Chancellor had only just gotten special permission from the Senate to have an army would tip people off to the possibility that the Chancellor was orchestrating the whole thing and had gone behind the Senate and Jedi Council's backs to pre-order this clone army for some ulterior motive. In the Clone Wars show we even see several groups lobbying for peace talks, negotiation, and cease fires etc. Why did none of those groups use the "We don't even know who ordered this Clone army!" argument as a way to at least call for a stop to the use of the Clone army?


Update: I'm accepting the answer that Tarkin was suspicious. However, feel free to answer whether anyone else was suspicious. Both Legends and canon answers are welcome.



Answer




Moff Tarkin was suspicious.



Tarkin had never been able to make sense of the Clone Wars, in any case. A battle on Geonosis, an army of clones springing up out of nowhere ... Almost from the beginning he had suspected that an elite outsider, or a group of elite outsiders, had been tampering with or manipulating events; that the battles had been waged in support of a surreptitious agenda.


In the meandering prewar conversations Tarkin had had with Count Dooku, the former Jedi had never made a convincing case for Separatism, much less for galactic war. If, as some claimed, Dooku had never actually left the Jedi Order, why then hadn't the Jedi thrown in with the Separatists from the start?
- Tarkin : Star Wars, chapter 9.



I'm sure there were others. However, Tarkin was already a protege of Palpatine, and he had decided to throw his support in with him.


When the Jedi were painted as traitors to the Republic (for their attempted assassination of Chancellor Palpatine) it was assumed they were attempting to take charge of the Republic. It was easy for some to believe the Jedi, secretly allied with the unstoppable Dooku, might have orchestrated the entire war.



I have no doubt the Jedi are doing their very best to ensure the safety of every citizen in the Republic. The accusations that the Jedi created the Clone War to give themselves more power over the government is absurd, and I will not stand for it. - Palpatine Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Lost




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