[Erwin makes a quiet humming sound in his throat, and takes his time responding. It's a repeat of what Jean had told him, but he's had more time to mull it over now.]

So conflict with the greater world would have been inevitable, regardless of whether the Colossal and Armored had attacked. All their attack did was speed up what was already coming.

[Erwin knows all about scrapping over resources, and how ugly those battles can get.]

In a way, their failed attack did us a favor. We had a warning, and some time to plan our defenses.