Quote Originally Posted by veti View Post
I don't really see how you can expect Ulfric to put any faith in the Empire, after that.
Sure, Ulfric's reaction (and the Stormcloak rebellion in general) is quite understandable, I just don't think it's the smart choice, as every soldier killed during the civil war is one less to defend against the Dominion (and even if we assume the next war is far enough off for them to rebuild, it'll still probably leave them weaker than they would've been).

As for questions like how likely a united empire would be to eventually stand up against the Dominion or how capable an independent Skyrim would be of doing so, I think there are too many unknown variables to say for certain either way.