Race Selection

Jatsu

Ok so I just started playing... well quite frankly I have yet to even start the tutorial, so conflicted have I been based on all the contradictory information I've been getting from various people. I've looked over many guides as well, but there are some things I just can't seem to figure out here.

The issue here is race selection. I fully understand that stats are a big deal and I have to choose these wisely, but in the IGN review, it states,

"Each racial heritage group has a distinct set of starting skills allowing players to make their decision based upon their play style. Each with their own special strengths and weaknesses to help your character along their career. You want to choose carefully, because even though you have the opportunity to pick up more skills as you go, those that you start off with can really affect you in the long run."

Is this accurate? If I start out as a race that appeals to me aesthetically and roleplay wise, but starts out with non-combat skills, this is going to affect me in the long run, and I will be gimped?

Does the fact that I want to be a fighter, veritably necessitate that I play as a Caldari/Civire? I'm big on roleplaying, and I want to play a more Deppish character that uses technique and deception, not brute force. I've also been told that I should stick with the same racial ship type for 3 weeks while I get acquainted with my surroundings. So basically, if I want to play a fighter, and run missions, going with a race other than Caldari, I would be stuck with a sub-par PvE ship for quite a while. I was hoping I could just train the Caldari ship skills early on and use them with a different race.