Prelude to World War Three: The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America

Unholy War

With nearly 290,000 US Forces in Israel, President Stein reluctantly gave General Gardner his fourth star and overall command of US Forces in Israel. The President was still mad at General Gardner for the destruction of the Al Aqsa Mosque. However, despite his displeasure with his actions, Gardner was becoming a brilliant military tactician and had grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat.

General Wade, the CENTCOM Commander, and his planners were developing a plan to invade Turkey via Greece once the situation in Israel had been stabilized. In the meantime, they were still working on how to move 140,000 soldiers in Germany and 110,000 troops in Italy to Israel. There were still another 350,000 troops on the east coast waiting for transport to Europe, which had become more complicated with the loss of US satellite communications and GPS.

General Gardner walked into an underground command bunker to address his senior officers and NCOs; he had commandeered the site from the IDF. “Everyone listen up. We are going to have to deal with the fact that we do not have satellite communications or surveillance and, yes, there is a serious disruption to our supply lines. We train for this junk, so just get over the loss — we have a war to win,” barked General Gardner. “The Air Force is providing continuous drone surveillance and communication flights across the battlefield, the Navy is continuing to ferry reinforcements from Italy, and the 80^th and 81^st drone attack wings have been tearing into the IR supply lines and frontline troops. They have also lost nearly 460 ground attack drones, so we will not have as many available for close air support — keep that in mind as well.”

“For the last 18 days we’ve been getting our butts handed to us on a platter, and now it’s time for us to go on the offensive. We are going to encircle the IR forces in the Jordan Valley and cut them off from the rest of their army. Once we have them encircled, the 307^th Bomber Wing is going to conduct a massive carpet bombing of the entire valley. Their attack will quickly be followed up with the 80^th and 81^st drone attack wings, and a massive napalm attack will finish them off.” Audible whistles could be heard throughout the room.

“Major General Kennedy, the 3^rd ID has been doubled in strength, re-equipped and supplied. Tonight your forces are going on the offense. The Marines have been slugging it out with the IR forces in Be’er Sheva for over a week. The 80^th Air Wing has been pounding the crap out of the IR forces in that sector for the last 18 hours to soften them up. I want the 3^rd ID to pass through the Marine positions and hit the IR hard; then drive your division to Arad and onward to the Masada Forest Preserve near the Dead Sea. Be prepared to hold that territory.”

General Gardner turned to the next divisional commander. “Major General Peeler, the 4^th Marines are going to move through your lines and support the 3^rd ID by holding the line from Beit Kama, Lahav and Meitar, where they will form the left flank of General Kennedy’s defensive line. The 80^th Air Wing will provide continuous air support to your division’s forces, so use them as needed. Moving to the north, Major General Petraeus, your 4^th ID is fresh and about to get bloodied. The IR forces have been making a push again at Umm al-Fahm; your division will need to push the IR forces back and then secure Ein Harod-Ihud down to Beit She’an. It is imperative that your division hold this line. The IR is going to press your troops hard in an effort to cut our forces in half. You absolutely cannot let this happen, no matter the cost to your division. Your position is perhaps the most important in this whole attack scheme.” General Petraeus nodded in acknowledgement of the significance of his mission.

Major General David Petraeus Jr. was the son of the famous General David Petraeus, the man who had essentially won the peace and the war in Iraq in the late 2000s. Like his father, he had attended West Point and followed in his father’s same career track, leading him to his current position as a divisional commander. “Major General Twitty, I need the 1^st Armored Division to bring the hammer down and close the back door. Your division is to push through the 4^th ID at Beit She’an and drive hard to Zubaydat, As Salt, Jericho and Almog along the Dead Sea. This area is good tank country, but you will need to watch your six with Amman to your back. It’s imperative that the 1^st Armored and 3^rd ID hold your positions at the Dead Sea. This will leave the IR forces nowhere to go.”

“The IDF, along with the 101^st Airborne, will hold the line in front of Lod, Rehovot and Kiryat Gat. Once the bombing runs are completed, all divisions will move forward and shrink the perimeter until we secure the entire valley,” General Gardner ordered.

General Kennedy raised his hand. “Once we’ve destroyed these pigs, are we going to get our payback for their crucifixions?” he asked.

The Marine commanders, who were beyond enraged, jumped in. “We found over 153 Marines crucified when we re-secured the Ben-Gurion University campus near Negev the other day,” blurted General Peeler, eyes burning with rage.

“I know everyone wants payback for the crucifixions, and I assure you we will have it. Once the battlefields have been secured and the grave registration units move in, they are going to bury the IR forces in mass graves. They will do their best to identify the IR soldiers so that they can be properly marked. Prior to the graves being filled in, they have been instructed to cover all the bodies in pig’s blood, which the Germans and Brits have supplied. We have documented over 5,000 crucifixions of US Forces, so we will bury their dead in pig’s blood in retaliation; they believe that this will prevent them from entering Paradise, so we will test that theory.”

A few laughs, snickers and whoops could be heard, mostly from the NCO’s.

This was a tactic used by General “Black Jack” Pershing in the Philippines prior to World War One. The US had taken possession of the Philippines during the Spanish American War of 1898. In 1911, a Muslim uprising took place in Mindanao, and General Pershing had the insurgents shot with bullets dipped in pig’s blood and then their bodies were buried with the guts of the pig. This discouraged future Muslim attacks by future Jihadis because they believed they would be prevented from entering Paradise if they were buried with the blood from a pig and its guts. General Gardner’s staff wanted to take a page from history and see if it would make a difference in this war — any small advantage that could be gained was something worth pursuing, no matter how strange or unconventional it may be.

“If anyone has further questions, please stay behind and ask them to Brigadier General Williams. I want everyone ready to move within the next twelve hours.”

“Eric, are the other HIVE locations operational yet?” asked Monty.

“All thirty sites are operational; we’ve located and moved every member of Congress and senior government official along with their families to the secured locations. There should be no more high level assassinations,” said Eric Jordan in a serious tone.

“I still cannot believe the Chinese would openly assassinate our elected officials,” said Jorge Perez in disbelief.

“The world powers seem to be trying pretty hard to put us down for the count,” said Monty angrily.

“Is the President going to sign the Executive Orders for the Trinity Project today?” asked Director Perez.

“We are still going forward with the program? I thought we had agreed to table that,” said Jane Smart, the Director of the FBI.

“We had tabled it, until the Chinese killed all but three of the Supreme Court Judges and Senator Landrew. Between the Muslim extremists in our country and Chinese sleeper agents, the President made the decision to move forward with it last night,” explained Monty.

“I understand your concern with it Jane; if it does not work, then we will shut it down,’ said Director Perez.

“Call me old fashioned, but once this program goes live I highly doubt it will ever be turned off. It’ll become too powerful a tool to simply cancel it.”

“Right now, we need to stop these terrorist attacks and bring some sense of security to the American people. The war in Israel is finally starting to turn in our favor, but the Chinese have really hit us hard,” explained Monty with a bit of concern in his voice.

The Trinity Program was the culmination of decades of identity intelligence collection, social media monitoring, big data and predictive behavioral analysis into one program. Essentially, the program would scan people’s social media pages, blogs, and other easily obtainable information and analyze the behavioral characteristics of every single person in the US and the rest of the globe to provide a predictive analysis as to whether or not that individual posed a security threat. Because of the use of biometrically enabled national identity cards, the purchases people were making could also be included in the profiles being generated.

Once the parameters for the search were entered into the program, the system could immediately go to work providing real-time data of threats, including: their locations, who they were connected to, and a detailed dossier of the individual’s activity that met the program’s requirements, justifying them as a valid threat. Once a link to a known threatening individual had been made, a warrant for further investigation would be acquired from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Then the program would begin to go through the individual’s emails, phone calls, text messages, banking records, etcetera, until it had built a complete dossier of the individual for analysts and senior leadership to determine their next steps. Once activated, the Trinity Program would become the most complex and detailed profiling and surveillance program in the world.

By 2039, biometrics had become a major part of the American economy and was a major component in reducing crime throughout the country. Through federal grants, The Department of Homeland Security had assisted cities and communities throughout the country in installing traffic and surveillance cameras in public places and buildings, similar to what London and other British cities had done. The network of cameras covered the vast majority of public spaces, making it easier to track the movement of suspicious individuals.

Of course, the Trinity Program was highly classified, with less than 20 total people in the government knowing about its existence, including the two programmers who built it. There were also several checks and balances built into the program to ensure it would not be used for a political or discriminatory role outside of its stated mission to protect the Homeland. All four agency directors, in addition to the President, Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, had to agree on the search parameters and any modifications before it could be used or changed.

As Jane and Monty were engaged in their intense discussion about the Trinity Program, the President walked into the War Room. He could tell by the awkward silence that followed his entrance to the room that he was interrupting something. “Sorry for the intrusion. I know I’m a few minutes late, but let’s go ahead and get this meeting started.”

“Mr. President, we have broken the briefing down by theaters of operation as requested. The first theater we are going to discuss is Asia,” said Colonel James. Colonel Alisa James was a sharp Air Force officer who had been the Defense Attaché to China just four months prior. Her unique knowledge of Chinese military capabilities attracted the President’s attention during a briefing at the start of the war with the IR, and she had been his preferred briefer ever since.

“In Taiwan, the PLA has landed nearly 215,000 troops and effectively split the country in half. The Taiwanese Defense Forces, or TDF, believe they should be able to hold their current positions for at least another month, and will continue to do so for as long as they can. The TDF destroyed nearly 20 % of the invasion force’s ships and shot down over 1,300 Chinese fighter drones. Ultimately, the TDF will have to surrender if they are not reinforced, but at present, they are tying the PLA down and costing them thousands of casualties a day.”

“We have three attack submarines in the area who have been hitting the Chinese surface fleet on and off for the last three days with some success. They were able to destroy a PLAN heavy missile cruiser along with two roll-on, roll-off heavy transport ships, which will probably hurt the PLA/PLAN logistically more than any of the other ships sunk thus far.”

“In Okinawa, the PLAN and PLAAF have destroyed our Naval, Marine and Air Force bases on the Island. Most of our aircraft that had not deployed prior to the surprise attack by the Chinese were destroyed on the ground. The 12,200 Marines, Sailors and Airmen are working with 15,000 Japanese Defense Forces (or JDF) to prepare the island for a potential invasion. Unfortunately, we do not have any capabilities within the region to evacuate our military members from the island. Should the Chinese land ground forces on the island, our forces are on their own.”

“The North Koreans and Chinese have not made a move towards South Korea yet. We are not sure how long this will last. Admiral Libby, the PACOM CG has ordered all American forces in Korea to withdraw to Japan. The South Koreans have activated their entire reserve forces and are moving to fill in our positions as we withdraw.”

“The Japanese have provided over a dozen heavy lift transports to assist in moving the heavy equipment to include tanks from Korea to Japan. The JDF has also moved three of their five carriers into Korean waters to protect the transports. Admiral Libby has stated that all American forces should be out of Korea within the next seven days, bringing the US Forces in Japan to around 42,000.”

“Aside from the attack against our bases on Okinawa, the Chinese have not attacked the Japanese Defense Forces. Intelligence does not believe there is a separate deal being worked between the Chinese and Japanese, but the Chinese do not appear to be concerned by the JDF at present.”

The President interjected, “Colonel James, before you go any further — can you please tell me if the JDF plans on assisting the US in fighting the Chinese?”

“I believe that is a question Secretary Clarke or Secretary Wise could better answer,” said Colonel James, turning to them both.

“Mr. President, I have spoken with the Prime Minister of Japan, and he has told me that Japan is going to try and remain neutral as they continue to mobilize their reserves,” said Secretary Wise.

“Jim, kindly remind the Prime Minister of our mutual defense agreements and that America is depending on Japan to honor those agreements. If they are holding out for a few more days or weeks so they can mobilize their reserves, I understand; however, we need their help in challenging the PLAN in the Pacific until our other carriers are operational,” said the President, clearly annoyed that yet another ally had not come to the aid of the US.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Colonel, please continue.”

“Yes, Mr. President. Our forces on Guam are surrounded. The PLAAF and PLAN have been hitting them ‘round the clock. It would appear they are going to invade the island sometime within the next 12 to 24 hours. The Navy lost four attack submarines in the last 12 hours in the waters around Guam, and the Air Force has expended nearly all of their remaining fighter drones attacking the PLAN armada—”

“How many PLAN ships are in this armada?” asked the President.

“According to our last surveillance drone, there are three Chinese supercarriers, along with their supporting ships, and what appears to be roughly 90,000 naval infantry forces,” said Colonel James. “These naval infantry forces are equipped with their newest exoskeleton combat suits. These are the best trained and equipped troops that the Marines and Air Force will be facing.”

“Between the Air Force and Marines, we have 21,200 personnel on the island. Most of the family members have been evacuated, but some are still on the island. As of five hours ago, the base had suffered the loss of 2,312 servicemen and women killed, with nearly twice that many wounded. There have also been 964 military civilian casualties and an unknown number of civilian deaths.”

“General Black, can the Marines repulse their invasion?” asked the President, knowing the chances may be small.

“It will be tough, Mr. President. I would like to say they can, but with no air support, reinforcements or assistance, they will ultimately fail. I do believe they could defend the base and island for a few weeks, maybe a month. Do you want my Marines to try and hold out?” asked General Black, knowing where the President was going with his question.

The President did not want to make General Black responsible for issuing the command to hold the island and essentially commit to losing over 15,000 Marines. He needed to be the one to give that order. “I do, General Black. The longer they can tie down the PLAN, the more time it gives the Navy to attack and sink their ships while they are in a contained area. I hate the idea of losing more service members, but surrendering without a fight is just going to give the Chinese an operational airbase in a key position in the Pacific, and our forces will be moved to God only knows what kind of POW camp that the Chinese are running.”

“I will inform the commander on the ground that he is to prepare to hold the island for as long as possible, destroy the remnants of the runways and then heavily mine them. It will slow the Chinese down; hopefully, the JDF will get involved soon. They could potentially relieve, or at least resupply our forces there,” said the General with a solemn shadow cast over him.

“Thank you, General Black. We will do everything in our power to make sure that those Marines do not make a sacrifice in vain,” replied the President.

“Thank you Sir.”

Colonel James paused a moment, and then broke the awkward silence that hung in the air. “Moving on to Southeast Asia, Mr. President. The Chinese 7^th and 8^th army groups have rolled across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and most of Thailand. Intelligence suggests that they will move on Malaysia and the Philippines next.”

“What are the Australians doing in response?” asked the President.

“The Royal Australian Navy is conducting hit and run attacks on the PLAN in the area, but in general, they are pulling their forces back from Indonesia to northern Australia. I recommend we withdraw our forces from Indonesia as quickly as possible (along with the rest of our naval assets) and move them to northern Australia and prepare a new defensive line,” General Branson said while pulling up a holographic map of Australia.

“We are in no position to stop the PLAN right now; they have three supercarriers heading towards Malaysia. Our best option is to withdraw as quickly as we can and prepare a defensive line in Australia. Until we can regain control of the seas, we need to be cautious with our remaining carrier group.”

“I concur, Mr. President. For the time being, we need to play defense with the Chinese until we can retool and get our shipyards going,” Admiral Juliano said while opening a file on his tablet.

“We have ordered the construction of eight new supercarriers, and we are pulling another eight out of mothball to get them in the fight. It’s going to be three to six months to get our mothballed carriers into the fleet, and close to three to four years for the new ones to be completed.”

“I assume we are activating most of the Ghost Fleet, correct?”

“Yes, Mr. President. The Navy just issued a contract for 200,000 workers to retrofit the Ghost Fleet and get it operational. We’ve also activated the entire naval reserve force, and they are going to start reporting for Fleet duty within the week,” said Secretary Clarke, nodding to Admiral Juliano.

“Sorry for getting us sidetracked, Colonel. Is there anything else with regards to Asia that we should know?” asked the President.

“There is one other item. We know the Chinese have several military installations in Africa and the IR. One of our subs in the Indian Ocean spotted two Chinese convoys. They followed them until the convoys split, so they followed the one heading towards their naval and land base in former Yemen. The other convoy appeared to be heading towards their base in either Madagascar or Tanzania.”

“Hmm….so our forces may start to see Chinese ground forces in Israel soon. General Gardner, did you catch that part?”

“Yes, Mr. President. I’ll see if the Air Force can task some of their drones to that location and see if we can spot the convoy as it comes into port,” said General Gardner via the 3D Holograph image.

“Colonel, thank you for bringing us up to speed in Asia; let’s transition to Mexico and the Panama Canal before we discuss Europe and the Middle East.”

“Mr. President, I’ve authorized four Private Military Contractors (PMCs) to provide security for the DOJ, DHS and reconstruction efforts in Mexico. This will allow us to withdraw an additional 60,000 troops from Mexico and bring our total troop count to around 45,000 from the 105,000 currently there. I’ll leave the reconstruction status for the DHS brief later today. Moving to the Panama Canal…well, it’s a mess. The Corps of Engineers believe they can have the locks repaired within the next 30 to 45 days. We are also sending 9,300 troops to provide additional security for the Canal; it’s become too important of an asset for us,” Secretary Clarke said.

“I’m amazed the Canal can be repaired in that amount of time, Eric. I thought we might have lost use of it for much longer,” said the President with a hint of optimism.

“We thought it was going to be out of commission longer as well; thankfully, the blast was not nuclear or a dirty bomb, so it’s just a matter of repairing the infrastructure as opposed to decontaminating everything prior to working on it.”

“I know I’m changing subjects, but how is the recruiting going?” asked Secretary Perez from DHS.

“Surprisingly well. The first week of the war, we had 2,300,000 volunteers. The issue we face right now is processing them all and getting them into training. It is taking nearly three weeks to get a new recruit to basic training. We have twelve new basic training locations being opened, and we’ve tripled the size of the existing sites. Last week we had another 1,700,000 people join,” Eric said.

“Do we still need to look at a draft with these numbers?” asked the President, hoping to keep the Armed Forces an all-volunteer force.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Even with nearly four million people joining the military in the last seventeen days?” asked the DHS Director, a bit surprised.

“Four million men and women is a lot, but this war is going to need a lot more. We are facing a Chinese military that is close to 40 million strong with their active and reserve force. The Russians have activated their entire reserve, bringing their total force to over 20 million, and the Islamic Republic still has over 6 million troops, despite the losses they are incurring in Israel.”

“We also need a lot of tech savvy recruits for our drone and other technical programs. A lot of these training programs are in excess of six to eighteen months. Even with accelerating the training, it is going to take time to field these new soldiers. In the meantime, we’ve lost over 71,242 service members in Israel, 32,435 service members in Asia and 2,352 in Mexico. These are just our KIAs; our wounded are nearly triple that,” Eric said with a deep sigh. He rubbed his temples, unable to hide the stress.

“We are going to need an army closer to ten to twelve million strong and a complete retooling of our entire economy to accommodate war production in order to win this war, and it will take years, not months.”

Monty broke in and quickly asked, “Things are not that bad are they? We are about to crush an entire IR army in the Jordan Valley.”

“It’s not that they are dire right now; it’s the combined weight of Russia, China and the IR that will eventually crush us. We have no blocking force in the Pacific right now, leaving Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast exposed. The Russians are about to enter the war, and will most likely roll over the EU within six months. With the Russian and Chinese navies and most of our carriers and naval forces destroyed, there is little we can do to stop the Chinese or Russians from taking Hawaii, Alaska or making a move into our Canadian States,” explained CIA Director Rubio.

The President saw the realization of what Director Rubio had just said, and he knew he had to regain control of the mood and thoughts of his advisors before they began to think the situation was hopeless.

“Gentlemen, America has been in tough positions in the past, and in each case we have risen above them to new greatness. This will be no exception. Our soldiers are using the most advanced infantry rifle in the world; we have already seen it make a difference in Israel. Our new Pershing tanks are unrivalled on the battlefield. They defeated the best Russian and Chinese made tanks near Damascus, and it’s that same railgun technology that cut down over 5,000 IR fighter drones that swarmed over Israel.”

“The American soldier is the toughest killing machine in the world, and we will win this war! It may not be in six months, or even a year, but mark my words; as long as I am President, we will fight this war through to victory. We are Americans; we are not just the greatest country on earth, and we are the most innovative and craftiest devils in history. If any of you doubt that fact, then I ask you to resign immediately and we will replace you with someone who will work tirelessly for complete and total victory,” said the President, eying all of his directors, generals and advisors.

The room became silent. The few who had doubts about America’s ability to win this war quickly lost them with the President’s fiery pep talk. Monty broke the silence. “So that everyone is aware — the CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have assured us that their entire manufacturing capability is in the process of switching over to manufacturing armored vehicles, tanks, drones, missiles and anything else we need. They will no longer produce any new American vehicles for the duration of the war, and will focus solely on building military equipment. Wal-Mart and Amazon are assisting with the logistics and movement of material across the US and to the operational theaters. Lockheed, Boeing and General Dynamics have ramped up production to 24/7 operations producing cruise missiles, fighter and bomber aircraft, along with our entire suite of fighter drone aircraft.”

Secretary Gibbs also added, “The Treasury Department has also begun to seize all IR and Chinese assets in the US, including businesses, buildings and other assets that the Chinese and IR subsidiary firms have in the US. We have also frozen the bank accounts of all government and private individuals from those countries, and we are in the process of seizing those financial assets as well.”

“The rest of the banking community has been made aware that the US will not do business with any financial institution or corporation that has a joint venture with these countries or that has financial dealings with them. The seizing of assets alone has netted the federal government $1.8 Trillion NAD in cash and $5.6 Trillion in physical assets, such as buildings and businesses,” said Joyce.

“What are we going to do with the money and assets from these seizures?” asked Secretary of State Wise.

“The cash is going into the regular federal budget; I assume it will be used to help fund and pay for the war. The physical assets will be sold on the open market for any US persons or corporations to purchase. The proceeds from these sales will also go into the government coffers—”

The President interrupted to add his thoughts. “—We did not start this war, nor are we going to allow these countries and their people to benefit financially from the conflict or sabotage our war efforts. The money being seized will be used to directly fund the war. Director Perez, can you tell us about your meeting with the various heads from the Silicon Valley?”

“Yes, Mr. President. Yesterday I had a meeting with the heads of Google, Apple and some other IT corporations in Silicon Valley. They have agreed to shut off internet access to China, in addition to the entire IR. We’ll be instructing them to move ahead with cutting off the Russians as well. Cutting them out of the internet (or at least the 70 % of it that Silicon Valley controls) is going to have a devastating effect on them,” said Director Perez with a smile.

Secretary Wise looked puzzled. “How did you manage to get them to go along with this? I would have thought they would have baulked at losing money from those markets.”

“They initially did baulk at it; they even said they would ignore our directive. Then Secretary Gibbs joined our meeting and said their assets would be frozen for aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war if they did not go along with the program,” Director Perez said with a smirk.

“That’s actually a good point; by continuing to provide them services, they are essentially giving them aid by greatly enhancing their ability to communicate and continue cyber-attacks against us. I guess I had not thought of it in that way,” responded Secretary Jim Wise. He flashed a look of admiration at Gibbs and Perez for pulling this deal off.

“Since Russia has already been brought up, let’s discuss them briefly before we break. There are a lot of orders that need to get issued and a lot of coordination that needs to be done,” said the President. He was starting to feel almost overwhelmed by the enormity of the decisions he was having to make.

An Army Brigadier General began briefing his portion of meeting. “General Dimitri Putin, their Central Asian military commander and the general who led their Red October War, has been transferred to Europe. He has brought the Third Shock Army, which has been battle hardened for the better part of the last two years in Central Asia. The First Shock Army has moved to the West Ukrainian border while the Third Shock Army is in Belarus, not far from the Polish border. Both Army groups have doubled in strength in the last six months, bringing their total number to 1.7 million soldiers each. They have also moved 4 million second tier troops that will be used for replacements and occupation duty when the time comes.”

“They also have the Second Shock Army assembling in Turkey, which could threaten our forces in Israel or the EU via Greece,” General Branson added.

“Will the EU be able to hold them?” asked the President, knowing the chances were slim.

“Not a chance, Sir. The EU has activated their entire reserve force of 1.2 million soldiers, but they are not ready for combat. The EU’s active force is around 660,000, and most of those soldiers are under-equipped and under-trained to face the Russians. The Russian Army isn’t like the old Soviet Army; this new army is well-equipped and well-trained. At this point, the EU will be more of a speed bump unless they are seriously reinforced,” said the General.

“Do we have a timeline for when they may attack?” asked the President.

“Our agents were able to identify the launch date for their attack; it’ll take place on December 24^th,” said Director Rubio.

“What a Christmas present Fradkov is giving to the world. So we have less than two weeks. Do we have troops or equipment that can be diverted to shore up the EU positions until they can build up their own forces?” asked Monty.

“We have 350,000 troops en-route to Europe, but they were slated to head towards Greece and open a second front against the IR in Turkey,” replied the general.

“If the Russians are going to invade, then opening a second front against the IR is a moot point. As those troops deploy to Europe, have them head to our bases in Germany, Poland and Romania. Let’s initiate Operation Reforger and get the gravy train of equipment headed towards England, France and Germany,” said the President.

“Once again, America is going to have to save Europe from their own inability to protect themselves. Something has to change in this equation or saving Europe is not going to be worth it,” the President thought to himself.

“Sir, we can re-route troops and equipment, but we need to recognize that it will take us close to a month to get an Army group equipped and operationally ready to take on the Third Shock Army. We have 140,000 troops in Italy right now; they are supposed to join General Gardner’s Command. I recommend that we still send them. We obviously cannot fight on three fronts right now, so let’s finish and secure one front while we can. Then we can move more of those forces to the other fronts. The main issue our forces in Europe will face is air power. Most of our air power is supporting our forces in Israel,” the SecDef said.

“It’s going to be tough gentlemen, and perhaps we end up trading land for a time, but we need to help the EU hold Germany. It’s their industrial center, and losing it will hurt the EU’s ability to build up their forces. To your other point, Eric, you are right. We cannot fight on three fronts. I want our focus to be on securing Israel and removing the IR as a threat. In Europe, we need to focus on delaying action and plan to make a stand in Germany. For Asia, I want the focus to also be on delaying damage. Until our naval forces are able to take on the Chinese directly, we are not going to be able to do much against them.”

“With all due respect, Mr. President, the EU has really shot themselves in the foot in this situation. Once again, it’s America coming to their aid a third time with our military. I respect our EU military forces, but their people and politicians continue to rely on America to defend and save them. I know we cannot let the Russians just take them, but there should be something in it for us.” A few jaws dropped when National Security Advisor Mike Williams was finished. All eyes turned to the President.

Chuckling slightly, the President responded, “I spent several years working for the DOD in Europe during the 2010s. I couldn’t agree with you more Mike; the question is, what will make it worth it? We cannot let Russia have all of Europe. We also cannot continue to defend Europe when they should be able to defend themselves.” Rubbing his eyes slightly, the President stood. “I appreciate everyone’s hard work and effort. These are trying times for America, and we as a country are going to have to rise to meet this challenge. I do not have all of the answers, and neither do any of you…what we do have is a will to win and a determination to make that happen. I will think about what you said Mike, and tomorrow we can discuss it further. With that, I want to end this meeting. We will reconvene tomorrow.”

Sgt. Joe Thornton’s platoon had advanced steadily once the 4^th Marines had hit the IR forces near Be’er Sheva the day before. Despite the numerical advantage the IR had, the American fighter drones had been pounding the IR for days. “Lt. Lee, are we going to advance with the 4^th further into the Jordan Valley?” asked Sergeant Thornton.

“No Sergeant, our orders are to hold this location, so have the rest of the platoon dig in to defensive positions. Word has it the IR is about to be pounded from the air and then we move in and mop up what’s left.”

That afternoon the 307^th Bomber Wing, consisting of eighty-four B5 strategic bomber drones, flew over Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley (the West Bank) and the bulk of the IR army. The slow and relentless whistling of tens of thousands of bombs being dropped in a pattern designed to saturate every square foot of land below them was nothing short of sheer terror. The mixture of high explosive and incendiary bombs were designed to not just destroy, but to incinerate everything in their path. The ground shook and rumbled as if a long and deep earthquake was happening. The Israeli and American forces watched the death and destruction being rained down throughout the valley in awe. Nearly twenty miles deep and sixty plus miles in length of the valley was a burning cauldron of death that few, if any, could survive.

After nearly 90 minutes of continuous bombing, Private Thomas and the rest of his platoon began to stand up and survey the damage in the valley. “Do you think anyone lived through that?”

“Listen up people, the Lieutenant says the platoon will be moving out soon to see what’s left of them after the bombardment, so get your gear ready. Remember the rules of engagement — if they are unharmed and they surrender, accept it; if they are wounded and need more medical assistance than what the corpsman can provide, shoot them. The higher ups have said that we do not have the medical supplies and support to treat both their wounded and ours. We are not going to sacrifice a wounded Marine for one of theirs — understood?”

“Yes, Sergeant,” echoed the chorus of voices through the platoon.