the federation actually adapted to the bug's pretty damn quick. as soon as they found out they couldn't just send MI down to fight the bugs 1 on 1, the sky marshal resigned, the new sky marshal said 'okay we glass them and the MI kill the stragglers'. hence 'fleet glasses the planet, MI mops up'. also if the MI and fed were incompetent at war why would they seek to interrogate a potential source of intel on how 2 fight bog better???