I'm gonna try and answer all questions and comments at once:
The story I have in mind takes place after the first contact with the Kilrathi that ended with the destruction of the TCS Iason in 2629, but before the actual decleration of war in 2634. (I posted the first few pages of the Story here on Wcnews a long time ago, though since then I've only worked on the Story sporadically.)
In the story I want to describe, and develop upon, involves the serious misgivings both ordinary and higher-upper military/political personnel has about the current situation in the Confederation Armed Forces ever since it was made clear (at least to those people on the frontlines) that the Confed-Kilrathi relations will almost certainly deteriorate into open conflict sooner or later. In this time-period the Confederation is at peace and as a whole has no interest in upholding the ever increasingly higher budget that the CAF (Confed Armed Forces) demands, eventhough there are more or less obvious evidence of the increasing Kilrathi threat.
My main handicap is (obviously) that I have never read a Pilgrim-related novel and I do not know anything about the particulars: Meaning when and where the war took place so I cant really backup the claim that the Confederation was actually stable and at Peace just before the Kilrathi-Terran war.
To be honest it doesn't look like I can do this type of story without involving the Pilgrims one way or another.
It would be easier for me to write a non-Pilgrim novel of course, but that would probably be selfish I suppose. I dont want people to skip a potential good WC reading-experience because of it.
If I have to choose a real-life comparison I suppose the relation between the US and Japan in 1940-41 (before the war) would be appropriate. I've always loved stories like that which doesn't necessarily include the actual fighting. One of my favorite movies in that regard is "Seven Days in May" which doesn't include any sort of warfare at all but all the tension you can handle (Seriously it's a great movie. See it if you haven't).
(the clip is just an example of a great movie, not identical to what I had in mind for the Story)