system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Halo]Aren't the Spartans overkill for their original purpose?

Why did the UNSC need Super soldiers to quell a civil war? Wouldn't some ODST's or other special forces be able to do the same job without the cost/ethical problems of the SPARTAN-II program?
gpt
No, they made perfect sense. Remember that counterinsurgency is not so much a matter of force, as shown by the British, Russians and Americans in Afghanistan. It is much more a matter of precision and speed, and that is what the Spartans have over SAS, Spetznaz, Navy Seals, and even ODST.

If it were just a matter of killing terrorists then the UNSC could just MAC them from orbit, but that would turn far more people against them. To paraphrase from the movie War Machine, in counterinsurgency 20-5=>20. What the Spartans could do was go on the ground and eliminate every last combatant with zero shots missed, zero collateral damage, zero casualties taken, zero evidence left behind, etc. They were uniquely capable of combating insurrection and terrorism, making it so that 20-5=<20.

Also consider that insurrection was considered to be of paramount concern. Some study basically predicted that within a few decades insurrection and interstellar wars would definitely be a big problem, so the government decided to actually be decisive about it.

Also though Halsey is a transhumanist nutjob.