In Star Trek: Discovery, Burnham seems to be blamed solely for the Klingon-Federation War. In 1x03 "Context is for Kings", one of her prison-mates blames her for her cousin's death.
Prisoner: My cousin was on the Europa when it went down. She and 8000 others are dead because of you.
Burnham: Eight thousand, one hundred and eighty-six.
Later in the episode, Lorca says that Burnham "helped start a war".
You helped start a war. Don't you wanna help me end it?
Sure, Burnham's mutiny was a crime that needed to be punished. But why is Burnham considered responsible for starting the war?
- Her mutiny lasted all of thirty seconds before it ended, and the Shenzhou didn't do anything during that time
- The other Klingon ships would have behaved the exact same way and started firing on the Federation, whether she had committed her mutiny or not
- It does not appear to be general knowledge that Burnham killed T'Kuvma, given that Harry Mudd didn't know that until she told him.
- If anything, Georgiou seems more responsible for ensuring that a full-scale war happened because she kept saying that warping out of the Binary Star system was "not an option" when it was clear there were Klingons present, and she committed war crimes by rigging the dead soldiers with explosives to disable the flagship (something I'm sure the Klingons wouldn't take quietly)
Given that things would have turned out the same whether Burnham committed mutiny or not, why is she seen as solely responsible for the war?