President Anthony Archer looked around the briefing room with a frown. Shaking his head in disgust, he looked over at Jack Lancer as he said, "The President of the Philippines does not believe our intelligence. What are our options?"
Jack Lancer was currently in charge of the political assessments groups for the Asian Pacific countries. He answered, "We can sit by and watch the Philippines fall, we can try again to convince the President of the Philippines to act now, or we can put an end to the coup before it has a chance to start."
"I can't convince him of shit since he won't accept my calls," Anthony said striking the table with a fist. Four times he had saved the Philippines from being the site of a major terrorist attack. Each time, the President of the Philippines had protested the actions. He was half tempted to let the Philippines fall to the terrorists.
Jack knew that was going to happen. He said, "Then that gives us two choices."
"I wish I could get that man to listen to reason," Anthony said.
Shaking his head at the idea that the President of the Philippines was being unreasonable, Jack said, "You have to understand things from his perspective. Since you came in office, all of the terrorist attacks in the Philippines have been aimed at American, Australian, and British interests. None of them have been aimed against the Philippine government. They don't want to rock the boat."
"But we're telling them that their boat is going to get sunk unless they do something."
Jack said, "Our history with them is not very good. We supported them in fighting the terrorists under Bush, but abandoned them under the previous President. They got clobbered there for a bit, but things calmed down after a while. Now we say we want them to go after the terrorists and that we will support them in the fight.
"They don't believe us. They think that we're manufacturing this crisis to get them to join our war. They don't want to join our war because they believe that when we get tired of fighting it that they are going to be hung out to dry."
Anthony Archer shook his head. Any time that he tried to get support from other countries it always ended up the same. Every world leader of battleground countries told him straight out that America was not a good and consistent ally. The problem was that he believed it as well. The Peace At Any Price crowd was already starting to make anti-war sounds. Shaking his head, he said, "I'm not going to watch that government fall. I'll keep calling them. You guys can keep forwarding the intelligence to them in the hope that eventually they will listen to us."
"What should I tell the Navy?" the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked.
"Tell them to be ready to take out the terrorists. We'll wait until the last minute to give the Philippine government a chance to act," the President answered.
Everyone in the room was tense as the live feeds from Predator Drones and mini-drones played out on the screens at the head of the room. They were currently watching the area around one of the largest Mosques in the Philippines. Over the past twenty minutes, a huge crowd had gathered around the Mosque. Having just entered the room, Mike asked, "What's happening?"
"The Imam is telling them that it is time to take control of the country," Tony answered. He was the group's most fluent speaker of Arabic and was listening to the speech taking place inside the Mosque.
Mike asked, "Where is the weapons cache?"
"That very large warehouse next to the Mosque is filled to the rafters with weapons," Jim answered. He was looking forward to seeing it explode. That was going to be one big bang.
"The Mosque will be taken out when they hit it," Mike said.
"That's right. So will every building within three hundred yards of that warehouse," Jim answered.
Mike could easily imagine the reaction of the world to the destruction of the Mosque. He tried to consider the alternatives, but couldn't come up with any. Looking over at Jim, he said, "Inform the Navy that the terrorist are about to make their move and give them the coordinates of the weapons store. I want you to send the President the full disclosure on the proximity of the Mosque to the warehouse and the surrounding domiciles."
Jim typed a few commands on his computer and then said, "I've uploaded everything to him."
Looking over at Shirley, Mike hadn't given up hope that one of the locals might make an attempt to prevent the coup. He asked, "Has anyone in that area reported to their government what is happening?"
"No one has said a word," Shirley answered. She zoomed one of the cameras out and pointed to the crowd that surrounded the Mosque. She said, "The whole neighborhood is watching what is going on."
Listening to a feed from the area, Tony said, "They are shouting Jihad over and over."
"They aren't watching, they are cheering," Mike said looking at the images being broadcast.
Glancing over at the feed covering the warehouse, Shirley said, "It looks like they are opening up the warehouse."
Mike glanced over at the monitor and shook his head. He picked up the phone and dialed the situation room at the White House. When the President answered, he said, "This is Mike Bowman. They are about to make their move."
"I'll issue the order," President Archer replied in a tense voice before hanging up the phone.
Shaking his head, Mike said, "I guess all we can do is watch. Make sure that we record the missile hitting the warehouse. We want to be able to show the world that we didn't target the Mosque."
The explosion produced by the missile striking the warehouse was huge. It took out the Mosque, the crowd, and half of the neighborhood. The flimsy construction of the buildings in the area didn't stand a chance against the blast. All of the analysts in the room stared at the devastation in shock. Even though they understood intellectually what to expect, the reality of it went directly to an emotional response.
Mike was the first to recover from his shock. He said, "I would say that one terrorist threat has been eliminated. Let's box up the recordings and ship them off to the Philippine National Security Agency."
Nodding his head acknowledgement, Jim went to work at the keyboard. Shirley turned to Mike and said, "No one is going to believe it. They are going to think that we hit them with some sort of super bomb."
"It doesn't matter what anyone thinks, we know that another threat has been eliminated," Mike said.
"The collateral damage is huge," Shirley said.
"Collateral damage?" Mike asked.
"The civilian bystanders," Shirley said.
Mike sat back and looked around the room. He could see that she wasn't the only one who felt that way. After clearing his throat, he said, "Everyone in the neighborhood could hear that sermon given by the Imam. We know that it wasn't the first sermon calling for the overthrow of the government. Not one person there warned the legitimate government that a group of people was planning on taking over the government through force. They aren't innocent bystanders; they are accessories to terrorism. They were directly supporting the terrorists by their cheers or their silence. We don't know how many of those so called innocent bystanders were going to walk over to that warehouse and grab a gun."
Nodding her head, Shirley said, "You're right."
Mike and Cathy listened to the news that night to see how they covered the attack. The coverage was remarkably balanced. President Archer felt that it was better to allow the intelligence to speak for itself. He authorized the release of the complete recordings of the weapons stored in the warehouse, the speech of the Imam calling for overthrow of the government, the crowd shouting Jihad, and the missile striking the warehouse.
The American public remembered the previous five years of living in fear of men motivated to violence by radical Imams. They recognized the true threat documented in the recordings. Many had seen and heard similar rants being broadcast before the attacks on Americans began. They knew that it wasn't a threat, but a promise of action.
The rest of the world did not believe the tapes. The Islamic public relations engine presented the Americans as cold blooded murders of innocent people. They broadcast dead bodies being pulled from a school. It wasn't even clear that the school was anywhere near the scene of the explosion. They presented films of anguished families wailing for the dead. They played recordings of the President of the Philippines proclaiming that the Americans had acted against his explicit orders to the contrary. The world was eating it up.
Impressed by what she had seen, Cathy turned to Mike and said, "They are so much better at presenting their case than we are."
"I know. Did you notice that they didn't address what was actually happening at the Mosque? They don't have to defend themselves. They present themselves as the victim and point all of the blame at us. We just won a major victory by preventing the overthrow of a relatively stable government and the world is condemning us," Mike said shaking his head.
Cathy commented, "You know that wars are not won on the battlefield, don't you?"
"I haven't figured out how wars are won," Mike said giving voice to an often repeated complaint.
"They are won or lost in the press. A good propaganda campaign can undo any victory on the battlefield," Cathy said. The nature of the American press was to find fault with the government and its actions. The nature of the enemy press was to support their war efforts. The result was that presentations of both sides of the conflict portrayed American actions as being wrong.
"So how can we turn that around?" Mike asked. He actually knew the military value of a well oiled propaganda machine. The problem was that the Americans were really bad at it. They suffered under the lash of a press that worked to keep the government honest. It couldn't use the big lie. Sure, they could sell packaged ice to Eskimos using commercials, but they couldn't sell that beating an enemy constituted a victory.
Cathy shrugged her shoulders and said, "The easiest way is not to have any regard for the truth. If you say what people want to hear and say it with conviction, it can become the truth. I can guarantee you that within two days, they'll be saying that our tapes are fakes."
"So how do we counter that?" Mike asked.
"I have no idea," Cathy answered with a shrug of her shoulders.
Mike joked, "If you can solve that problem, you'll be a hero."
Cathy was silent for a minute as she considered what Mike had said. She looked over at Mike and said, "That's not a bad idea. I'll think about it."
"It's about time we go visit Sanjay and his lovely wife, Teva the conniver," Mike said.
Cathy laughed at his characterization of Teva. She had listened to Mike explain how a large number of people had been working behind the scenes in order to get them together. Although she didn't quite believe him, it was obvious to her that he believed it. She said, "I guess that means that I finally get to meet one of the conspirators."
"You already know Kim," Mike said.
"She's in on the conspiracy?"
"That's right," Mike said.
Mike tossed a beer to Sanjay and said, "The women are in the kitchen planning my downfall."
Sanjay laughed and popped the top on the beer. After taking a chug, he said, "Relax, it will only be a little painful."
"Thanks," Mike said.
"She is a beautiful woman," Sanjay said gesturing towards the house.
Mike sighed and said, "I miss Karen and Robert. I loved them so much that I thought I would die when they died. There are times when I hate myself for being with Cathy. I know that Karen is dead, but I feel like I'm cheating on her. I can't help it."
"I understand," Sanjay said.
"It's not fair to Cathy. She's a nice girl and deserves someone who can give his whole heart to her. I can't do that. At least not yet," Mike said.
Sanjay prodded the hamburger with the spatula while he thought about what Mike had said. After a minute, he asked, "Has she asked you to do that?"
"No," Mike answered.
"In India marriages are usually arranged by the family. They take into account caste, economic background, the history of the family, astrology, religion, and a hundred other factors when creating a match. It is a very big deal, but it doesn't involve love. Often the bride and groom haven't even met until just before the ceremony. It is assumed that if everything else is perfect that love will follow," Sanjay said. He gave a short laugh and said, "I met Teva here and we used to talk about things over coffee. I fell in love with her. I wasn't expecting that to happen, but it did. I fought it, but that didn't accomplish anything except create a few bad memories. It was a big scandal when I married Teva."
"I bet," Mike said.
"These things work out in their own way. You can't force them to happen. You can't really prevent them from happening," Sanjay said working the burger free from the grill. He flipped it over to cook on the other side. He looked over at Mike and said, "Either you will give your heart to her or you won't. It isn't the kind of thing that you can decide. It will either happen or it won't."
Mike took a sip of his beer and said, "You're right."
Sanjay winked and said, "Of course I'm right. Teva told me what to say."
Caught taking a sip of his beer, Mike nearly spit his beer out. Coughing, he said, "You've got to warn me when you say something like that."
Inside the house, Cathy was sandwiched between Teva and Kim. Teva was talking about what a good man Mike was and how much her family owed them. Kim was talking about what a great man he was. Cathy didn't need the pep talk; she was already head over heels in love.
The war on terror being waged by the United States had far reaching implications around the world. After the first few attacks against terrorist training camps in countries that had not given the United States permission, France broke off diplomatic relations. In a widely aired speech, the President of France declared the United States of America to be a rogue nation. He did not buy the American argument that it was a matter of national defense to eliminate irregular armies that were attacking it or training to attack it.
The world waited to hear how the President of the United States responded to the termination of diplomatic relations with France. There was no public response in the form of a direct comment by the President. The State Department sent a message over to the French Embassy in Washington that they were to vacate the premises as soon as possible. In what was touted as a gesture of goodwill, there was even an offer to help them pack.
This was not the reaction that the French had expected. The same thing happened when Belgium, Germany, Sweden, and Norway followed the example of the French. The nations of Europe watched America with real fear. While they had decided that President Bush was reckless, they were terrified that President Archer was insane.
The destruction of the Mosque in the Philippines had become a critical political crisis in international relations. Asian countries started terminating diplomatic relations with the United States. The first to end relations was Thailand. Part of reason was that a small but violent Muslim group operated within their borders. With protesters in the streets demanding an end to relations with America and bombs exploding outside bus stops, the government of Thailand felt that there was no real choice in the matter. Rather than anger the terrorists, they chose to placate them.
The African countries joined in the mass exodus to isolate America. Their motivations were much simpler. America was half of a world away while the Middle East was basically on the same continent. This was not in those countries best interests. They had forgotten that historically Arab slavers used the African continent as a major source of slaves.
The slave trade suddenly took a huge swing upwards. The majority of anti-slavery laws, as well as their enforcement, in the Middle East had been a result of strong economic pressure by the United States. With the former governments of those countries having fallen, those laws were repealed. Muslims were allowed to own slaves as it had been up until the late part of the twentieth century.
The result was that the African continent became the site of frequent slave raids in which entire villages were marched off to North Africa along traditional trade routes. Tin pot African dictators found that they were suddenly free of American restrictions. They went after every bit of wealth that they could grab. Over ten million Africans died in tribal wars that flared up across the continent.
Interestingly enough, even as Europe was blaming America for all of the problems in the world, it was also demanding that America intervene to solve the problems in Africa. Despite billions of dollars to help Africa with the Aids problem and billions more in agriculture and urban development grants, America was viewed as the root of all problems African. It didn't matter that Europe had carved Africa up into colonies and left them in shambles when they had pulled out of that continent. President Archer's reply to European demands was less than polite.
Mike and Cathy were at his house watching an interview on the Wolf News Channel. The reporter asked, "What are you going to do about the problems in Africa?"
The President answered, "I'm taking care of that now. I'm killing the terrorists located in Africa who have killed Americans."
Rather surprised by the answer, the interviewer took a second to recover. He asked the question a different way, "What about the social and economic problems there?"
President Archer looked at the interviewer for a full five seconds. Five seconds is a very long time, particularly during an interview. Finally, he answered, "When this country had problems with terrorists killing our people in the streets, we saw how many other countries supported us. Those countries did nothing about it. We saw how many of them provided us with intelligence about threats to us. We saw how many of them arrested known terrorists for extradition here. If I recall correctly, that number was exactly zero. That's exactly how many countries I'm going to help with their problems during my Presidency."
"But the people of Africa need us," the interviewer said.
"Those same countries that are now in chaos had terrorist cells in them who actively attacked us. They did nothing to help us. Those countries broke off diplomatic relations with us. Now those terrorist cells have started to destabilize the countries in which they are hiding. Personally, I don't give a damn if everyone in Africa kills each other."
"You don't mean that?"
The President answered, "Not really. History has shown that there is nothing that we can do there. If we provide foreign aid, then we're accused of supporting a puppet government and everyone hates us. If we don't provide aid, then we're accused of trying to topple the government. If we topple a government that is killing its citizens, then we are accused of enabling another blood thirsty tyrant to take control over the country. If we don't topple them, then we are accused of keeping the tyrant in power.
"We've shipped bushel baskets filled with dollars over there every year since 1960 and it hasn't done a bit of good. The money we pump into social programs end up going into the pockets of corrupt politicians. We can't win. We won't play that game any more," President Archer said.
"What about American interests there?"
"I promise that if one American is killed, that I will destroy everyone responsible," President Archer answered leaving the reporter speechless.
After watching the interview with the President, Cathy said, "Those are pretty tough words."
"Yes they are," Mike said thinking about it. He had noticed that President Archer tended to understate the level of activity taking place behind the scenes. He felt that there was a lot more going on than suggested in that interview.
"What do you think?" Cathy asked.
"I think the President is right as far as our ability to help Africa. I don't think there is anything that we can do that will actually to help Africa," Mike answered. He tried to think of one successful effort to help Africa and couldn't come up with one. For over fifty years, the world had been trying to set Africa on its feet and in all of that time, not one country ever stood up.
"How about education?" Cathy asked.
Mike sighed at the question and said, "For years we've been supporting education in Africa. We've helped to build colleges. We've given scholarships for their people to get educated in this country. We've sent teachers over there to train people. We've helped train enough doctors and nurses that healthcare on the whole African continent should be at the same levels in Europe. Do you know where those doctors and nurses are?"
"No. Where?"
"Here and in Europe," Mike answered shaking his head. The same was true for the engineers and other professions that were educated over the years. It seemed as if anyone with brains left the continent as soon as possible. He said, "They leave Africa as soon as they get trained."
"There has to be something that can be done," Cathy said.
"I wish there was," Mike replied with a sigh. He said, "There are so many problems in the world and no one really has a solution to them. Too often the advice is to throw money at the problem. That hasn't helped. There isn't one country that is better off after fifty years of our attempts to improve things.
"Pointing to the reconstruction of Germany and Japan after the destruction of those countries at the end of World War II as an example of success is misleading. Both countries had a history of industrialization and civilization. No one had to tell either country how an industrialized society functioned or how to establish a functional government. That isn't the case in Africa, particularly as it currently stands today."
"We can't give up on them," Cathy said.
"I don't think we have. I think we've come to the realization that we can't help them and that our attempts to help them may be holding them back," Mike said.
"What do you mean?" Cathy asked looking at Mike with a puzzled expression on her face.
"There has to be a fundamental change in Africa and the rest of the world before we can help the Africans. I think we have to wait until they are ready for our help," Mike answered.
"I don't follow you."
Realizing that he was being a little too cryptic, he added, "The Africans have to learn what it means to be a nation. They have to learn what it means to have a national identity in terms of a common culture, a shared language, and a unified vision for the future. Once they figure that out, they will have to redraw their national boundaries. It is not up to us to lead them to that realization. It is not up to us to redraw their national boundaries."
"Who will?"
"That is a very good question. My money is on the terrorists and it
is going to be a very brutal lesson. I have a feeling there are going
to be new countries with names like Maasi, Berber, Zulu, and Ashanti."