David DeLaney wrote:
> A third short-to-medium story I recall without the identifying details was
> one where, as swyck wanted, Earth got involved on one side of an alien war,
> then the other side came in and chased the first side out, then the first
> side came back and chased the second side out, and on for several more
> swaps, with massive collateral damage to Earth and the humans each time. It
> ended up with Earth careening on its way out of the solar system and the cold
> coming in...

THE LIBERATION OF EARTH by William Tenn

> (Or perhaps I'm confusing the ending with the one where the Giant Inexplicable
> Insect shows up, lands, once every few centuries moves, then finally kicks
> off and away?)

HERESIES OF THE HUGE GOD by Brian W. Aldiss

And the one you didn't ask about, the one about the hundred mile high
spaceship landing and ignoring everybody for thirty years until a
human walking transport creeps up one landing jack and plants a
nuclear device is

FOR LOVE by Algis Budrys

On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:36:26 -0500, Nyrath the nearly wise
<nyrath@projectrho.com.INVALID> wrote:


>
> And the one you didn't ask about, the one about the hundred mile high
> spaceship landing and ignoring everybody for thirty years until a
> human walking transport creeps up one landing jack and plants a
> nuclear device is
>
>FOR LOVE by Algis Budrys
>

That's "For Love" all right, but isn't there another Budrys story with
a somewhat similar plot -- a man desperately making his way to an
inscrutable ship and planting a bomb? "The Man Who Tasted Ashes",
maybe? Or am I just confused ...