Starscream frowns a little. He's hearing an awful lot of don'ts and not a whole lot of dos. This Megatron is making it sound like they're already nearly doomed to fail, which is not really how Starscream would prefer to characterize the current state of the Decepticon movement. Thriving! They're supposed to be thriving, even if the Autobots are holding them back.

"Alright, so what would you do, then?" he says, really wanting to know exactly what keeping an open mind is supposed to mean in the middle of a war. "You've overthrown the Senate -- the old government is in pieces -- and there's a ground war with an independent faction that's not only becoming a struggle over territory, but over resources, too. They impede your progress every step of the way, trying to hold together the pieces of a society that's already fallen apart while you try to march toward progress -- oh, and their leader's made it personal with you on top of everything else. So if it were you -- and it was once, obviously -- what would you do to avoid the path you've gone down before?"

Megatron really should let him into those tac meetings. Or at least let him write the briefings.