Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

A Caliph’s Dilemma

The Command Bunker that the leader of the Islamic Republic had moved the government to was developed by a famous Chinese engineer who had also developed similar bunkers for the leaders of China. It was a honeycomb of various living quarters, meeting rooms and work spaces designed to sustain and support a government or run a war several hundred feet below the surface. It also had multiple escape tunnels to ensure the occupants could exit when the crisis had passed. Caliph Mohammed and his senior staff had been quite comfortable staying there since the beginning of the war; and now that the Chinese were entering the conflict, he believed that the Americans would capitulate soon.

Mohammed sat in his war room, reading over the various field reports from General Abdullah Muhammed, his overall military commander in Jordan. The Command Bunker incorporated the latest in technology and communications systems, so the Caliph could effectively communicate with the outside world and continue to manage his armed forces from safety. Between the surveillance videos from the drones and the reports from Abdullah, he ascertained that the majority of his forces in Israel had either been destroyed or surrendered. The General estimated that they lost close to 400,000 soldiers in a single day. Of course, there were still close to 90,000 troops fighting in Southern Israel and General Abdullah had 300,000 troops in Amman. Another 1.2 million more reinforcements still in-route.

“Caliph Mohammed, General Abdullah is requesting permission to withdraw all IR forces from Israel and to consolidate them near Amman under the cover of our laser defense network,” General Rafik Hamza said, not sure how the Caliph would respond in light of the destruction of so many soldiers in the Jordan Valley and the loss of Jerusalem.

“Do you agree with the General’s assessment that he should withdraw his forces?” asked the Caliph, his voice dripping with disappointment and sarcasm.

General Hamza did not like to be talked down to; he resented the acid tone of the Caliph. It was his order to advance all their forces into the Jordan Valley, but this had made them too tempting of a target, and his men had been slaughtered by massive air raids. As far as General Hamza was concerned, this military catastrophe was entirely the Caliph’s fault.

“If he is allowed to withdraw his forces back to Amman, then he will be able to establish a defensive line until additional reinforcements from Iran and Iraq are able to move to the front. He is trying to buy time while ensuring the Americans are not able to launch an offensive and capture Amman,” General Hamza replied, clearly annoyed at having sound military advice being dismissed or questioned.

“This is a disgrace, General… an outrage. Nearly a decade of training, modernization and hundreds of billions spent on our military and in one day, our entire attacking force was wiped out. They didn’t even have to use nuclear weapons to do it!” raged the Caliph.

“If you will recall, my Caliph, you ordered General Abdullah to send all of our forces into the Jordan Valley to push past Jerusalem. General Abdullah’s original attacks may have been slower than we liked, but he was grinding the Israeli and American armies into the dirt prior to sending the entire army in.”

“Do not try to blame this catastrophe on me, General Hamza. I have provided everything the Army said you needed to win, and then some. We had Jerusalem; we nearly had Tel Aviv. Now our army is destroyed,” Caliph Abbas asserted, leaning back in his chair, exacerbated.

“All is not lost, Caliph. This is just a setback, and once our reinforcements from Iran and Iraq start to arrive, they will be able to resume the attack. There are 1.2 million additional troops on the way, along with another three million civilian volunteers. The Russians still have forces in Turkey and once they join the war, they will assist us in Israel. My Caliph, we lost a battle, but not the war,” the General reassured, trying to make certain that the situation could be turned around in time.

The General continued, saying, “I would also like to point out that we just launched our offensive in North Africa to push the American Marines into the Ocean. The Navy is also setting up hundreds of small motor boats with Exocet missiles to conduct hit and run attacks on the American supply lines, and once the Russians join, the American supply routes through the Mediterranean will be cut.” General Hamza was confident that he could regain the initiative and trust with the Caliph.

“We also have the first of Allah’s Swords about to be delivered to the Americans; we may be able to force them to capitulate to our demands as well,” General Rafi interjected.

Caliph Mohammed knew General Hamza and Rafi were correct and the smart move to make right now was to pull his forces back to Amman and regroup while they waited for reinforcements. The Russians were about to enter the war, and the Chinese had an expeditionary force on the way. Once the Russian and Chinese arrived, the IR’s fortunes would change. They just needed to stay the course.

An Army Colonel walked into the room and immediately began to move towards General Hamza. Once he reached the General, he whispered something in his ear; General Hamza started to smile and his eyes began to light up.

“General, I assume you have received some good news? Please share it with us,” Mohammed Abbas commanded.

“I believe we should turn on Al-Jazeera. The first of Allah’s Swords has been successfully delivered to New York City.”

As the TV was turned on, the council members watched as the scene unfolded. The various images showed the vast destruction of New York. The widespread devastation of the city was made complete with the obvious absence of the Statute of Liberty and the World Trade Center. Images of mangled bodies strewn along the streets flashed across the screen; throngs of wounded tried to flee the city as many more were practically piled on top of each other at overcrowded emergency rooms.

Dozens and dozens of military helicopters could be seen ferrying people from the more damaged areas of the city to numerous triage locations and regional airports. The skies were abuzz with military aircraft. Fires could be seen burning out of control in several of the boroughs and Jersey City and blazes also plagued numerous container ships and other large ships that had been in the various harbors and piers. It was a picture of complete and utter destruction.

General Hamza smiled. Then, picking up his tablet, he decided to lose no time, and started sending out additional orders. “Colonel, send word to all of our radar stations and laser defense centers to be prepared for the Americans’ response. They will most likely attack us with nuclear missiles.”

Mohammed Abbas looked at the images in awe and a bit of fear. If their nuclear bomb could do this amount of damage, how much damage would the Americans inflict on the Islamic Republic with their much larger nuclear arsenal? The Islamic Republic still had close to 400 nuclear weapons; however, none of the warheads compared in size to the American, Russian or Chinese city killers (the 300 to 500 kiloton range and higher). After longing for this moment for so long, Mohammed began to wonder if attacking an American city directly with a nuclear weapon was the best way to bring terror to America.

They were supposed to coordinate the bomb going off with the second bomb quickly to follow. “They must have had to move up the timetable for some reason,” thought Mohammed Abbas. The genie was out of the bottle now; it was too late to go back. Looking at Talal bin Abdulaziz, the Foreign Minister, he ordered, “I need you to contact the American government immediately. We need to make our demand to them immediately before they launch a counterattack.”

Talal looked at Mohammed Abbas for a second before responding, “I will start on that immediately. Please give me a couple of minutes to make a few phone calls.” Talal picked his tablet up and then dialed a phone number he had that was to be the official number used for the two governments to communicate with.

As the phone began to ring, Talal was trying to think about what to say — “This is the Presidential switchboard, how may I direct your call?” asked a man’s voice.

“This is Talal bin Abdulaziz, the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister. I have the rest of the Islamic Council with me. We would like to speak to President Stein.”

“Please hold one minute.”