Battlefield Korea

New Commander, New Strategy

Admiral Peter Meyers had taken over as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs following the dismissal of General Joe Hillman. Of course, he did not agree with this decision, but he understood why the President had made it. The United States had been caught completely off guard by the sudden turn of events in Ukraine, which had now led to a full-scale war between NATO and the Russian Federation. The fact that most of the intelligence community and the military underestimated the Russians’ resolve to go to war over Ukraine was a supreme miscalculation. Thus far, that tragic decision had led to some disastrous defeats.

The siege of Kiev with nearly 9,000 NATO forces trapped in the city was a media nightmare. Then, China annexed Mongolia and two weeks later, invaded the countries of Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. When it was discovered that several members of Congress and dozens of senior government officials had been caught leaking highly classified intelligence, some of which was used directly against US and NATO Forces, the President was left with no other move than to come down hard on the leakers and try to right the war before defeatism set in. Admiral Meyer’s first priority was making sure the warfighters had everything they needed to win this war that America now found itself in. His first order of business was to assess the losses and then determine how quickly they could replace them.

Today’s White House meeting was going to involve a morning meet with the National Security Advisor and the President to obtain permission to acquire the needed equipment, and gain authorization for a full mobilization of the military’s strategic reserves. He also wanted to push for a draft to quickly bolster the size of the US military. He knew this would be controversial, but he was also not sure how else they could fill the ranks of the military as quickly as they needed to. The war with Russia could quickly turn into a war with North Korea and China at any moment, so time was not on their side.

It was turning into a beautiful autumn morning as his driver stopped their vehicle right in front of the side entrance to the White House. “I was going to retire at the end of the year… it looks like I’m going to have to put that off for a few more years now,” bemoaned Admiral Meyer to himself.

Meyer cleared security quickly and began to make his way to McMillan’s office; he wanted to go over a few things with him first before he briefed the President. As he approached his office, he saw him getting up and heading out the door to greet him. “Good morning, Admiral. You ready for today’s meeting?” he asked jovially as he led the way down to the Oval Office. This was Admiral Meyer’s second visit to see the President since taking over as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (CJC). He had only been appointed to be the CJC three days ago, so it had been a whirlwind getting caught up on everything that was going on.

Prior to being appointed to take over as the Chairman, Meyer had been in charge of the Navy’s procurement program, which he had concluded was a complete mess. It was one of the reasons he had planned on retiring; he was just tired of the bureaucracy and how mismanaged the procurement process had become. He had tried on numerous occasions to improve it, but was met with stiff resistance from various members of Congress and the lifelong bureaucrats who resided at the Department of Defense. He missed serving in the Fleet. He loved the smell of JP8 as it wafted across the bridge from the flight deck of a carrier.

Suddenly, Admiral Meyer was jolted from his reminiscent thoughts. “Are you ready for the meeting?” asked Tom McMillan, the National Security Advisor (NSA), as he shook Meyer’s hand.

“I’m ready. I’ve spent the last two days reviewing the combat losses and mission requirements being sent to our office. It’s been a mind-numbing experience, but I believe I’m prepared to start making recommendations. Then again, I’m not 100 % sure how the boss is going to take them,” Meyer explained, realizing as he spoke that he did not know the President very well.

“Just be honest and direct with your assessment,” assured McMillan. “The President doesn’t like BS, and he can smell it a mile away. He’s very direct and to the point, which makes him pretty easy to work with. If you see Saunders or Rosenblatt in the room, be careful-not that they will gun for you, but they hold a lot of sway. Sometimes you almost have to win them over before you can win the boss over. They are smart, good guys, but sometimes their agendas are not always the same as the President’s agenda,” McMillan offered as they approached the outer door to the Oval Office.

Admiral Meyer nodded. He appreciated the insight into the office politics since he was so new in his position.

The President’s secretary waved them on in and held the door open for them. As they walked into the room, they immediately saw the President’s Chief of Staff, Saunders, and Rosenblatt sitting on the couch waiting for them, along with the Secretary of Defense, Jim Castle. They all stood up and gave the obligatory greetings before getting down to business.

The President opened the meeting, saying, “I know we’ve kind of thrown you into the deep end of the pool having to take over for General Hillman, but I need to know where we stand with the war, and what needs to happen to win it.”

“The NSA was right, the President likes to get right to it,” Meyer thought. The admiral scooted over and took his seat on the couch next to the SecDef. “Mr. President, I’ll be blunt. The war is not going well right now, and if it keeps on its current track, we are going to lose. I have some recommendations. In my military opinion, I believe these actions are needed to turn things around and win this fight,” Admiral Meyer said, not holding anything back.

The SecDef gave an affirmative nod. The two of them had talked late into the evening the night before about what Meyer was going to propose at this meeting. Castle was fully on board and would back him up.

Rosenblatt, the President’s advisor, seemed a bit taken aback that so much had been apparently missed under General Hillman’s leadership.

The President leaned forward in his chair, and looked the Admiral in the eye, “That’s why I placed you in charge. I don’t want any fluff and nonsense. I want to know what you need to win, and I don’t mean in a few years. You and I know the American public will only support a war for a finite amount of time before they will lose patience with it. We need to win this fight quick.”

Nodding in agreement, the Admiral continued, “I agree, Mr. President. The first order of business is that I need your permission to activate the military’s strategic arms reserve. All the branches of the military have a strategic reserve of aircraft, tanks, ships, etc. that we keep in dry storage in case of a national emergency. With the equipment losses we’ve sustained in Europe, and may potentially sustain in Asia, we need to get that equipment out of storage and brought up to full readiness immediately.” As he spoke he began handing out several documents, which listed some of the critical equipment each service needed pulled online.

Gates looked at the documents briefly and then nodded in agreement. “Done. You have permission to get this equipment activated immediately. What else do you need?” he asked, genuinely wanting to get the warfighters whatever they needed to win.

“We need troops, Mr. President. We need a lot of soldiers to fill the new units we are creating.” He held up a hand for everyone to give him a chance to finish his thought. “I know General Hillman had authorized the activation of the entire military reserve and the National Guard, but they are not going to be enough. Even with 50,000 people volunteering to join the military in the past two weeks, it’s still not going to be adequate. I believe we need to reinstitute an immediate draft, and do it now so we can get their training started.”

There was a moment of silence after the mention of the word “draft.” Then he saw Stephen Saunders nod his head in agreement. Rosenblatt’s affect remained flat, almost dismissive. Admiral Meyer knew in that moment that he already had Saunders on board but would need to find a way to convince Jonathan that this had to happen.

“We have 460,000 troops on active duty, with another 530,000 personnel in the Reserves and National Guard. While that sounds like a lot of soldiers, it’s not nearly enough to accomplish the task of winning this new war. Most of these soldiers are not direct combat soldiers-they are largely support units. We badly need active ground forces. We also cannot have our entire armed forces deployed to Europe, nor can we leave the Pacific and our allies there unprotected. If hostilities do break out between North Korea or China, then we are certain to lose in our current state.” Admiral Meyer spoke passionately. He really wanted to persuade the President to agree to ramp up the military immediately, while they still had time.

Stephen Saunders jumped in before anyone else could speak. “Mr. President, while I do not like the sound of a draft, the Admiral is right. It takes time to train an army and time to equip one. Right now, we are still operating with the depleted military that existed when you took office; we can’t change that, but we can do what is needed to get the country ready to win this war. Remember, during World War II, it took the US nearly 18 months to raise and train an army before it was ready to start fighting. We don’t have that much time. This war with Russia is serious. They have nearly four times as many soldiers in Ukraine as we do. We cannot rely on NATO to step up to the plate on this. We need to institute a draft and a massive rebuilding of our military.”

Jonathan Rosenblatt then jumped in. “I am not sure a draft is the right call. I agree with the idea that we need to rapidly rebuild the military-that has to happen-but I think we can get enough people to volunteer without having to institute a draft. If we go that route, the press is going to eat us for lunch,” he said, disgusted at the options they appeared to be left with.

Steve snorted before retorting, “The press has never been on our side, so what difference would it make if they agreed with us on a draft or not? They are going to report whatever they are going to report. We need to focus on the business of the country and not what they are going to say or think. We have to assume they are going to be against us no matter what decision we make.”

The President’s left eyebrow went up. With his usual voices of reason at odds, he turned towards Admiral Meyer, NSA McMillan, and SecDef Castle. “Gentlemen, what is your recommendation for how many forces we should draft should we move in that direction?”

Castle nodded towards Admiral Meyer to continue. The two of them had briefly talked about how many soldiers they would need the night before. McMillan thought they could get by with a much lower number, but was willing to let the Admiral make the case for the larger number he wanted.

“Mr. President, I believe we should announce a draft of five million men and women. It is going to take us time to get them trained, and until we have the proper facilities up and running, we will have to draft people in stages.” As he finished his point, he pulled out a sheet of paper that outlined how many people he would like to draft into each of the military branches.

Rosenblatt gaffed at the number, almost laughing out loud. The President’s Chief of Staff did audibly chuckle at the number being proposed. McMillan leaned back in his chair, waiting to let the Admiral make his case for why he felt the US needed such a large number of draftees. However, before he could even begin, Stephen Saunders offered, “You know, Mr. President, this kind of Army would allow us to right a few wrongs and bring some true peace to the world.”

Ishaan jumped in at that comment, “Steve, this isn’t some crusade we are talking about. You can’t just build up a multi-million-man army and start invading countries you disagree with.”

Saunders bristled; he did not like it when people openly disagreed with him.

The Chief of Staff brushed off the obvious disdain that Stephen was dishing out with his deadly stare. He turned to the President. “Sir, I agree that we need to build up the military, and maybe drafting a few million people is what we need to do… but we need to be cautious with this. If we announce too large of a draft, it will send the wrong message overseas.”

This time the President interrupted, “-You mean it will tell the Chinese and Russians that we are not screwing around? That we mean business? Or that the mentally unstable little dictator in North Korea had better get in line or he may be next? That kind of message?” Sarcasm dripped from the President’s voice.

Gates was obviously irritated at that point. “Honestly, I’m tired of this crap. The Russians invaded Ukraine and attacked NATO because they believed us to be weak. The Chinese invaded Southeast Asia because we do not have the military capability to tell them to back off. North Korea has developed ICBMs because we lack the ability to stop them. Enough is enough. We are going to send a message loud and clear to the rest of the world that this kind of annexation of their neighbors is over. I do not want President Xi to think for even a second that he can invade and take Taiwan next because we lack the troops or resources to stop him.”

The President got up from his chair and began to pace back and forth while the others stayed seated. He signaled for everyone to stay seated. “I’m stepping outside for a minute. I want you all to stay here. Think this problem through for a minute-don’t talk to each other, just work your way through the problem quietly. Try to figure it out… if we do this draft, how would we use these forces? What would be our end state, and how do we message it? I’m going to walk outside for a minute to calm down and clear my head. When I come back, I will want some options from you guys.” Then Gates opened the side door to the portico and walked outside to get some air and think without distractions.

The others in the room sat there for a minute, not saying anything as they thought about what he had just said. Ishaan and Jonathan immediately began to write several things down on their notepads. Saunders got up and began to pace around the office himself, mulling over what the finer points of messaging. McMillan just smirked as he looked at Admiral Meyer and nodded his head in approval.

Less than five minutes later, the President walked back into the Oval Office with a determined look on his face. He looked at Saunders first and asked, “So, how do we present our new strategy and the draft to the public?”

Without missing a beat, Steve confidently responded, “We look back at President Reagan’s speech about the Evil Empire-those words galvanized the nation. Of course, we’ll need to work on updating it to our current time and situation, but we’ll go with something along those lines.”

Gates gave a half nod. He didn’t like the thought of stealing ideas, but he knew Saunders well enough to know that his finished work would be acceptably original.

The President then turned to his senior advisor, Jonathan Rosenblatt, and asked, “Thoughts on end state? What do we want it to look like?” He knew John was not in favor of this option, but he also knew John would identify a set of objectives that was feasible, and not some “pie in the sky” idea that Steve might want to try and unsuccessfully pursue.

“For the record, Mr. President, I do not agree with this decision,” Jonathan began, taking one last attempt to put his two cents in. “However, I have identified what I believe to be a suitable end state given that this is the direction you want to move towards. We should use this war with Russia and the massive buildup of our forces to also deal with North Korea. They have been a problem since the end of the Korean War in 1953, and they can no longer be allowed to continue on their current path. They now have ICBMs that can hit the West Coast, and if given more time, they will be able to equip those missiles with nuclear weapons. Heck, they might be able to do that now. We cannot allow the US or our allies to be faced with nuclear blackmail for the foreseeable future.”

The President nodded, and Jonathan continued with his assessment. “Presently, we cannot do anything about the Chinese annexation of Laos, Vietnam, or Myanmar, but we can let them know that we will not tolerate the annexation of Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, or Taiwan. If we are going to stand up to China and the rest of the world, then we need to stand strong and be willing to use our growing military. A lot of countries are going to test us over the next few months. Some may even attack our allies, knowing that we are not in a position to stop them. If we move forward with this draft and military buildup, we may be able to deter them from those ambitions, even if just for a short while.”

No one in the room had any objections to anything Rosenblatt had just said, so Gates signaled to his Chief of Staff, Ishaan Patel, to speak next. “Ishaan, how do we get the Congress on board with this and approve the draft, along with the equipment and money we will need to make this happen?”

Ishaan sighed deeply before responding, “Very carefully, Mr. President. Congress just officially declared war on Russia last week. The defense spending authorization bill is nearing completion right now. I believe we should try to get them to tack on the draft Admiral Meyer is requesting along with the additional monies that will be needed for the war. However, the real problem is going to be figuring out how to pay for it… the conservatives are going to cry foul on the cost because we are probably talking about a defense bill that is going to be over one trillion dollars. The liberals are going to cry foul on the draft and what they will see as an expansion of the war. Even if the war is currently against Russia, they are going to see this as a stepping stone to additional wars.”

Gates then walked around to the chair he had previously been sitting in and sat down. He looked at Steve and said, “Well, there is one way to make sure we get both the liberals and conservatives on board. We raise a war tax to help pay for the war, thus ensuring that the draft does not disproportionately hit minorities or the poor. What are your thoughts on how we do that?”

Ishaan nodded in agreement but wanted to hear Saunders’ ideas before he jumped back into the conversation. Stephen crossed his arms somewhat defensively before he admitted, “Mr. President, the tax is absolutely necessary. This war is going to be costly, and we cannot just run up the debt on this one. During World War II, the Congress instituted a war tax and they also heavily pushed government war bonds; I think current circumstances would point us towards doing the same thing now. To make sure the conservatives stay on board, we can put a sunset clause on the tax. That way the tax will end when the conflict has finished or the debt from the war has been fully repaid.”

The President raised his hand to stop Steve. “While the discussion of a tax is something we should talk over further, I want to stay focused on the draft,” Gates said as he signaled for Admiral Meyers and the NSA to continue talking.

McMillan jumped back in to provide his own input with regards to the draft. He couldn’t let the good Admiral have all the credit. “Steve brought up a good point about the draft not being directed at the poor and minorities like it appeared to have been in the past. When we announce the draft, we should also ensure that there are no deferments. No one should get out of it because they are able to afford college while others are not. If someone is in college and gets drafted, then I think they should have the option of going in as an officer if they are beyond their sophomore year. We also make sure there are no exceptions that can be handed out by those who are politically connected.”

Gates nodded in approval. McMillan took the green light to keep going. “I’d even go one step further, Mr. President. If any member of Congress has a son or daughter of military age, then at least one member of their family should be drafted and have to serve. This will ensure that people are not able to get out of service to their country because their parent is a political figure and thus able to shield them. This war is a threat against our country’s very survival; the burden of fighting it should be shouldered by every social and economic class,” Tom concluded.

Admiral Meyer was smiling from ear to ear.

The President also smiled at that idea. He turned to Ishaan and Admiral Meyer and ordered, “Gentlemen, make it happen. Admiral, I want you to begin procuring the equipment and tools you need. Now, onto the strategy. How are we going to defeat the Russians and ensure the Chinese do not annex any additional countries?”

Admiral Meyers jumped into answering this question, probably before he should have (McMillan really should have been the one to lead off since he was the National Security Advisor). “Sir, I believe the NSA and I should sit down with some of the other generals and military planners to come up with a strategy on how to do that now that you have given us the authorization to increase our military buildup. With these additional resources, we will need some time to collectively develop a winning strategy. Can I propose that we meet again in a couple of weeks to go over an initial outline?” he asked, hoping the President would give them some time to iron things out.

Gates overlooked the breach of etiquette, and replied, “Of course, Admiral. Let’s plan to reconvene in two weeks to go over your plans. In the meantime, we will move forward with the draft and the other orders we talked about today,” replied the President, satisfied with how the meeting had just gone. With that, he got up and signaled that it was time to end the meeting.

Gates did have other pressing matters to attend to. They had been discussing this matter for nearly two hours, and had gone well over their scheduled time. He rushed off down the hall; he was going to be speaking with a trade delegation from Brazil in another hour and he still needed to prep for that meeting and grab some lunch.

As the meeting ended, McMillan and Admiral Meyer left the Oval and headed towards Meyer’s new White House office with the SecDef following. In a rare moment of transparency, McMillan turned to Admiral Meyer and told him, “I’m envious of you. As a retired General, I wish I could do what you are about to do with the military and direct a real build up-not a ragtag group to fight off some terrorists, but a real standing army.” The men continued to walk down the hall in silence as they thought about what to do next.