Somebody attacked me one time. So I tried to retaliate and I got a message "GDI Authority will not let you do this without declaring war"..so how come they can attack me once but I can't attack right back? I'm not a member of GDI. Also since it says I have to declare war-how do I do THAT?

What kind of attack are you trying to do? People in GDI that only attack once are protected from missiles and special attacks/ops.

You can't declare war.

So if I join GDI NOBODY can EVER attack me with a missile?

Yes, unless someone breaks GDI by hitting you more than once or doing harmful ops or attacks.

Correct, unless you attack them more than once. The developers intentionally programmed it that way to protect people who single tap or all explore from being suicided on.

So if some sucker hits me TWICE for a landgrab-then I can unload on 'em?

Yes

Then there's hope. I was starting to think the name of the primary server would have to be changed to the "Sitting Duck" server.

Works out good for bottom feeders who don't want to get suicided randomly, but also for topfeed retalers because most top countries won't negate their gdi over a single later in the round topfeed Retal.