Hey all,
I'm new here, but, not new to Star Wars. I am a big time Star Wars Geek! I still watch the movies (all 5) many times a year! I use to work for one of the Star Wars collecting sites, and have participated in many a Star Wars debate. Maybe I can shed some light on this topic for you all!
First off, Stormtroopers are clones! How do I know this? Well there is a plain as day answer, but, I will save that till the end of my explanations.
O.K. ready for some Star Wars 101? Well, first off, the ideal that the Clones will not be loyal to the Empire, because they are Loyal to the republic is false. All the Empire is, is a modified version of the Republic, and a name change. The clonestroopers, are loyal to the body, not the name. You can change the name a hundred times over and the clonetroopers will be obedient to that body still. Now, lets talk about the clone wars. We all know that Darth Sidious is Chancellor Palpatine, and Sidious is using his power as Chancellor to manipulate the republic. AS chancellor, Sidious can manipulate the government side of the Republic, this will allow him to put himself in control of the Governing bodies of the republic, however he has a problem, the problem is that the Republic has no power to contriol the strong economic corporations, so he has to devise a way to get them out of the picture, and what better way to do this, then to use their own greed to round them up into a huge alliance and have them go against his own republic. He uses Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus for this. Now why would Sidious want to do this? Wouldn't he take the chance of the Seperatists winning? No he wouldn't, because this is all a trap, knowing he can get all the Economic Powers into an alliance, known as the Seperatists, he has secretly sanctioned a HUGE Clone Army behind everyone's back. Wehter it was actually him or Tyranus that posed as Sifo Dyas remains to be seen, but, either way it was Sidious' doing to make the clone army. Next his job is to create a Huge Security Situation in which he is bestowed the Emergency Powers, once these powers are bestowed to him, he in now Effectively EMPEROR, again, only a name change is what will make it clear. Now while he's trying to get these emergency powers he puts a set of circumnstances into motion in which the Jedi will "find" this CLone Army, he allows the Clone Army to be found that way he rids himself of any suspicion if all of a sudden he says Hey, I know there's a clone army at Kamino, everyone will look at him and wonder how he knew, if the Jedi Find it, noone will expect him of being corrupt! So he gets these emergency powers, and knowing of the Clone Army that the Jedi Conviently found, and siting that the Seperatists have amassed an army of their own, he now has the power to annex the Clone Army in the name of the Republic, so now, he has the power to rule over the Republic, and the military might to back him up. Seeing how he now has the emergency powers, the clones and the republic follow his orders, again the clones don't care if it's called the empire or the republic, they follow the guy in charge!!!!! Can't stress that more!!! SO, now Sidious/Palpaine can use the newly formed CLone Army, to spring his trap on the Seperatists, Paplatine knows that he has no support structure in place to Control the CLones (ie. Officers, and trainign of officers) so he allows the Jedi to control the Clone Army. THis is not by folly either, as the Jedi will loose a great many of their own ranks in the CLone Wars, leading the CLone Army against the seperatists. THis helps in getting rid of the Jedi, which will eventually be a thorn in his side, and also it's his goal to exact revenge on teh Jedi. THis also explains why Obi-Wan Kenobi is known to Princess Leia in the EP4 A New Hope as General Kenobi, because the Clones being an army respect ranks, thus the Jedi are made to take on ranks to lead teh clone armies until Palpatine can get trained officers and a regular support structure for his military in place, and at the same killing off Jedi!!!!
Now, why does Palpatine/Sidious want to get rid of the Economic powers, well, in any dictatorship, the ruling person not only rules the people, military, and the Government, but the dictator rules the Economy of the Body as well! Palpatine/Sidious, by getting all the Economic powers on one side, and then sprigning the trap on them that will DESTROY those Economic powers, he himself can then rule the economy of the Republic as well, by doing this, he has the entire galaxies RAW RESOURCES at his beckon call, that is why he is able to build 2 Death Stars, I mean c'mon, he's not taking out loans here! Also, if he controls the galaxies economies, then the expenses of making obediant clones is not really an issue, as it's not his money that he is using!!!
Phew, now with that said, why do I think the Stormies are CLones, well many reasons. If the emperor was really concerned about cash, then it is cheaper to have Clones, the kaminos made many many Clone Armies, as they called the one they made for the Republic their finest ever (as seen in the Movie AOTC), so making a clone is a one time money endorsement, and all you have to do after that is feed them. No need to pay them, they're clones! If you have a Army made of regular Humans, no matter how heartless the Emperor is, he still needs to understand that in order to get ppl to fight for him, he needs to pay them, so on top of feeding an army of regualr humans, he has to pay them, other wise no one is willing to fight!! Obviously that will cost more then a clone will!!! Think about it. Now, more reasons why I think Stormies are clones, will if you head on over to the Official Star Wars Site ww.starwars.com, and look in their Databanks, you will see that Jango Fett is listed as being 1.83 meters in height, Boba Fett is listed at his adult height of 1.83 meters, makes sense right? Boba was a clone of Jango. So, with that said, check out the height of the clonetroopers, they are listed as being 1.83 meters, that makes sense too right? TO me it does. Now, check out the Databank entry for Stormtroopers, guess what height they are? If you said 1.83 meters, you win yourself a prize. Is this mere coincidence? I might be, but, I think not, especially when Imperial Biker Scouts (Scout Troopers), AT-AT Drivers, Sandtroopers, and Snowtroopers are all also listed as 1.83 meters!!!! Coincidence falls to the wayside in my opinion! Now I have many more reasons why I think Stormies are Clones, but, I won't bore you. I will in fact get right to the irrefutable evidence that shows Stormies are clones, that is, George Lucas himself said that the Stormies were Clones! If you have the AOTC DVD, pop it in and listen to the commentary for the movie. In the commentary Lucas says himself that the Clones get a certain trait from Jango. In the scenes after Jango andf Obi Wan fight on Kamino Jango boards the Slave I and as he gets on the ship he smacks his head on teh closing Door, Lucas, makes a comment as to why he wanted this little bit of humor in the movie, here is his exact quote from the DVD:
"that trait gets cloned into all the stormtroopers."
He makes a bit of a joke of it because in the Original Trilogy, the Stormies hit their heads occasionally on doors, so, Lucas JOKINGLY, explains this a bit, but the reason the joke works is because Stormies are Clones, and the saying goes like Father like son, but, in this case, I guess it can be said like Host, Like Clone? THat was funny? No?
I love having this discussion, so I entertain people to speak up on their thoughts, this topic makes for a good debate!