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

Whole Grains

The President was having his national security team keep a close eye on military developments within the IR. With Russia and China building their armies for war, it was imperative to keep tight surveillance on the IR to determine if perhaps the three countries were planning to initiate a war together. Stein sat down in the Situation Room for a briefing with the National Security Advisor.

Mike Williams picked up a folder and opened it before beginning. “Now that the Russians have consolidated their gains during the Red October campaign, they are in a better position to help the IR continue their military buildup. During the last six months, the IR has received a number of drone tank battalions from Russia and China.”

“They are protecting the industrial belt of the Republic (and their nuclear weapons capability) with their new land-based laser anti-ballistic missile shield near Riyadh. They are also expanding that shield to Tehran, Baghdad, Ammon and Cairo. Once operational, it will make it virtually impossible for our cruise missiles to hit targets around those areas; it will also make it impossible for our aircraft to conduct an air raid.”

“The most alarming report we have, and the main reason we have called this meeting, is that we have intelligence showing a massive troop movement by the Islamic Republic. As you have already been made aware Sir, they have been spending the last six months building up their military capability and troop levels. Well, last night, our satellites picked up a significant migration of troops in Indonesia towards several ports. When looking closer at the ports, we discovered over eighty large transport vessels anchored at the docks. Our only conclusion is that the Islamic Republic is moving a large number of troops from Southeast Asia to the Middle East,” Mike said.

General Branson spoke up, “It may be nothing, but I get the sense that something greater is afoot, Mr. President. The Chinese, Russia and now the IR are all building massive militaries. Armies are expensive to maintain, and you do not create an army of this scale without having a purpose for it. These sizeable troops would simply be too expensive to maintain for peaceful purposes.”

The President responded, “That is my thought as well. What we do know for sure is that Russia ultimately wants to overtake Europe, China wants to conquer Southeast Asia and dominate the Pacific, and the IR wants to destroy Israel and us. Given this development, we should start orchestrating war plans for how to deal with these known threats.”

“In the meantime, Monty, I want you to get in touch with the EU Chancellor and the British PM and let’s see if we can arrange for a meeting between their defense ministers, national security advisors and ourselves. I also want the NATO EU leadership involved in the meetings. We need to go over some of these events with them and get our countries working together.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“All right gentleman. If you’ll excuse us, Monty and I have to meet with our economic team to discuss some new initiatives and devise some new plans on how to speed up our own recovery.” Stein stood up and began to walk out of the Situation Room. The other men in the room stood out of respect to their Commander in Chief.

Within a few minutes, Henry Stein was in the Oval Office, ready to face his next meeting. “Gentlemen, sorry for the delay. We were detained in the Situation Room. Now it’s time for me and Monty to turn our attention towards the economy, so I am hoping you all have some good news for me,” said the President as he sat down.

Jeff Rogers, the White House Senior Economic Advisor, jumped right in. “Mr. President, we do have good news to report. As you know, tomorrow the GDP numbers will be released, and so will the jobs report. I’m proud to say that the economy grew at 5.6 % during the third quarter and the unemployment number dropped from 16.9 % to 12.3 %. More and more people have been getting hired into the jobs program, and the private sector has also recorded 653,000 new jobs added this month.”

Jeff Rogers had been the CEO of Proctor & Gamble prior to joining the Presidential staff, and brought with him years of experience in job creation and innovative ways of solving difficult economic problems as he guided P&G through the Depression. One of the hallmarks of the Stein Presidency was his ability to surround himself with successful people from both the private and public sectors. There were no political appointments made based on political donations or to garner favor. The President was absolutely intent on appointing people who were subject matter experts (SMEs) in the area they were being appointed into. In several cases, individuals who had not performed (or who were not up to the tasks required of them) were asked to step down or were replaced. The best and brightest from the private sector were being poached to work for the Stein Administration.

The President was very impressed so far with the work that Jeff had brought to the table. He acknowledged, “This is good news gentlemen, great news indeed. We need more improvements like this, and we need to keep growing the economy. This should be the main focus in the media; we need to do everything we can to let people know things are getting better and help them to believe that there is hope. If people start to feel good about the country and our prospects, it will not only cement the FP as the party of growth and change, but also inspire the rest of the nation.”

The other people in the room nodded in agreement.

The President continued, “I also have an idea I’d like to float past you all to see what you think. As you all know, our country is still in massive debt — over 30 % of our country’s yearly income goes towards servicing our debt. The new sin tax has made some headway in paying it down, but I have two thoughts on how help to pay it down even further,” he said with a smile.

“Mr. President, we are all ears. What do you have in mind?”

“I have given this a lot of thought, and there are two areas I would like to discuss. The first is a national lottery system that would help to pay down the debt. For every $1 NAD paid into the system, 40 % would go towards paying down the national debt, 10 % would support and sustain the national lottery system itself and 50 % would go towards the prize for the winning number. A drawing would be held every Tuesday and Friday.”

“Lottery systems have traditionally raised a lot of money for the states; I see no reason why the federal government should not leverage this as well. Once the debt has been paid down, then I propose the funds be transferred to the Social Security fund. We could finally fix the solvency issue and protect our seniors for generations to come.”

Jeff sat there for a second, thinking to himself before responding, “I do not see why we couldn’t establish something like this. We can create a subsidiary company under AFC to manage and handle the system. I’ll start to discuss it with my team and get back to you during our next meeting on the feasibility of it,” he said as he made a few notes on his tablet.

The President smiled and knew if Jeff thought it was a viable option, he would not exude praise until his team had examined the idea first. “Excellent, Jeff. This next idea is an idea I thought should have been enacted decades ago; it’s a radical approach but something that will in time help to stabilize global food levels. I would like to propose the development of a Grain Consortium.”

Stein linked his tablet to the interactive holographic projector on the ceiling of the room. Instantly, a floating image of the world displayed. The President began to highlight specific countries and then turned to face his advisors. “The oil producing countries have OPEC…I do not see why the large food producing countries of the world cannot form a Grain Consortium to both stabilize the price of commodities and also ensure enough food is being produced to feed the world. These countries represent our greatest potential for membership in the Consortium.”

Jeff sat back in his chair and stared at the map as it floated in a circle just above the center of the table. He was thinking about what the President had just said. “I do not see why we could not look into this; however, the trick is making it work. That will be the hard part. First, we have to get enough of the large food producing countries to participate in the Consortium, and then we need everyone to stick to the prices and food production quotas. It would definitely be hard to enforce.”

Grabbing a pen and writing some notes in her notepad, Katelyn Smith, the President’s senior trade advisor, asserted, “At a minimum, we need to get Canada, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia to be a part of the Consortium if it is going to be effective. We will also need to stop producing corn ethanol entirely and ensure our farmers are running their farms at full production. No more subsidies to farmers who do not grow and sell crops.”

Katelyn Smith had been a commodities trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for several decades before she started her own financial firm. When it came to international trade, particularly in the area of commodities, she knew her stuff. The President had chosen her to be his senior trade advisor because she was sharp, honest and direct — qualities he respected. He knew he needed help to turn the economy around.

Jeff interjected, “Another point for consideration is that each country will need to establish a central entity (whether it’s a corporation or some other entity) that will coordinate the purchasing and sales of all national food products.”

Katelyn nodded towards Jeff, then continued, “Another caveat we would need to place in this plan is that local farmers will need to have a choice in selling their products to local grocery stores and communities or to the government entity. We do not want this to appear like the government taking control of food production, because we are not. As long as we include this qualification, I believe this Consortium could work — it will take a lot of coordination and some patience, but I believe we can do it. If you would like, my staff can start to develop the outline for this Consortium and we can start the dialog with our potential partners.”

“All right, then please have your staffs start work on this immediately and let’s see how fast we can get this moving,” the President said, satisfied that this idea had some merit and could potentially work.

Looking at his watch, the President saw they were running behind schedule. “Let’s talk about the infrastructure projects, Jeff. Where do we stand with them?” Jeff tapped away on his tablet and the holographic map began to show new data and information represented on each state. He began to pull several states forward to discuss them in more detail. “As you can see, we have 497 bridge projects, 2,667 highway projects and 3,422 high speed rail projects underway. All of the agreed upon projects (including bridge, highway and high speed rail projects) in the 2037 Infrastructure Plan are on track.”

Switching to a new image on the map, he continued, “The nation’s power grid upgrade and security improvement effort is moving forward. The Department of Energy is working with the various utility companies on hardening specific critical power nodes against EMP and cybersecurity threats. DHS and DOE are also stocking up on transformers and other critical components needed to repair and maintain the various critical nodes should something happen to the supply system,” Jeff said.

“Good. This will fold in nicely with 2040 National Defense Authorization and Recovery Act. This country has been wholly unprepared to deal with any major catastrophes,” the President responded.

“This has been a major focus of the National Recovery Working Group, Mr. President. We are scheduled to have a meeting with them next Thursday; I suggest we wait to discuss this further with them,” said Monty as he adjusted his reading glasses.

“I agree, Monty. Thank you for keeping us on track. Before we move on — Jeff, I want to make sure that we are diversifying the equipment used in these upgrades. Pay particular concern to products that are built by Chinese firms or subsidiaries. I do not want our power grid exposed because we used the same product in every facet.”

“I agree, Mr. President, and I will personally make sure that is being looked at,” said Jeff as he annotated a few items on the map.

Running short on time, the President jumped to the next section of the brief. “How is our manufacturing renaissance going?”

Jeff nodded towards his counterpart. “Katelyn can provide input into the trade aspect, but things are starting to improve a lot. The corporate tax and tariffs have helped with reshoring a lot of manufacturing; with the steady reduction in energy costs and a large supply of labor, it has made America a very attractive place to set up new manufacturing.”

Katelyn broke in, “—We have also increased tariffs on competing manufactured products coming from abroad (with special interests towards products from China). We have spent the last two years reviewing the various trade policies and agreements currently in place. A lot of these deals were initially poorly negotiated, which led to our enormous trade deficit. We have since modified these agreements or terminated them. We have effectively evened the playing field for American manufacturers, which has encouraged a lot of them to re-shore a majority of their overseas plants,” Katelyn said as she used her tablet to display the latest trade levels on the holograph.

“The Chinese, of course, are not happy about the tariffs, but the alternative is that they lose their ability to sell their goods to the American market.”

The President smiled at this, “My entire life, the Chinese have taken advantage of my country. Now it’s time to take advantage of them,” he thought.

“Good work Katelyn, I’m all for free trade, but it must be fair trade,” said the President. “Let’s continue to work on this Grain Consortium initiative and ensure our trade agreements are strictly fair trade going forward.”

“China is in desperate need of both food and oil; the Grain Consortium would be the perfect tool to leverage those needs to our advantage. We can also add an additional charge to food and oil products being sold to China.”

Jeff, sensing that the President wanted to “stick it” to the Chinese, asked, “Can you explain that a little better Mr. President? I’m having a hard time following.”

“We sell the goods to China for the price we paid for through the Consortium, and we then add an extra 5 % to it. Rather than taking it in the form of cash, we take it in the form of them forgiving that amount of our debt. So the Chinese would be able to secure a steady supply of food and oil from the US, while we get an even larger portion of our debt paid off. By doing this, the government wouldn’t be losing any money on the purchase of the food from our own markets and at the same time, we would reduce our debt by 5 % with each sale made to the Chinese,” said the President, clearly excited at the possibility of reducing the debt even further while “getting even.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that Sir. I think it could work, but the Chinese aren’t going to like buying the food and fuel from us when they could just buy it directly from the market,” said Jeff.

“Normally you’d be right. However, since the Global Depression hit, most of America’s food and fuel supply has been reserved for Americans only; very little has been authorized for overseas sales. We can tighten that restriction even further, forcing the Chinese to have to play by our rules.”

“All right, Mr. President. I’ll start work with the Commerce Secretary and we’ll start putting this into action. I’m also going to meet with our various farmer groups; I want to see what we can do to help encourage our farmers to produce more products and increase the supply going forward. I think food could become the key to our economic success and recovery, at least in the short term, Mr. President,” Jeff said.

“Ok, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get things moving and we’ll reconvene next week,” said President Stein.

The Americans immediately began to implement the concept of the Grain Consortium (or “the GC” as it was quickly coined). Through a series of legislation and Executive Orders, AFC took the lead in purchasing commodities from American farmers willing to join in the GC. Canada quickly jumped on board, and so did a number of other countries. It would take the rest of the year to fully integrate all of the participating members into the GC, but the initial concept and American/Canadian partnership began to have an almost immediate impact. As the first planting season began, farmers in both countries reported a 120 % increase in the number of acres planted for the first growing season.

Meeting between EU President, Canadian President, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the NATO Secretary General and the President of the United States

President Stein hated dealing with his European counterparts. Despite having lived and worked in Europe with NATO during the early part of his career, Henry still found that Europe was a continent so fragmented and diverse it was hard for anything of substance to get done. The US had spent so much blood and treasure on Europe during the 20^th Century to ensure they remained a free people; most Americans did not believe Europe was worth spending any additional lives or resources on any longer.

The Europeans had so fouled up the Syrian refugee crisis and the Arab Spring in the early 2010s that millions of refugees had poured across their borders and never left. During the following 25 years, the demographics of Europe had changed as a result, and despite the central government’s having very little in common with (or love for) the Islamic Republic, a large percentage of their population did. There was a cultural undercurrent of support for the IR and a distrust of the central government by European Muslims.

President Stein had landed in Paris, and as his motorcade made its way through the city to the location of the meeting, he could not help but notice how so much of the city had changed. There were a lot more minarets dotting the skyline and women wearing headscarves, despite the bans on them. The air hung with a certain darkness that was not there before; the atmosphere just seemed a bit bleaker, lacking the usual energy and hopefulness one would expect in Paris.

The motorcade pulled up to the official entrance of the Elysee Palace, and as Henry stepped out he could not help but feel that he was entering a bubble that brought him back to another time and place in history. As he followed his security agents through the entrance, he was struck by the building’s grand décor and ceaseless beauty. Despite all of his travels, he was still amazed by his surroundings, like a child who has seen Disneyland for the first time. When he arrived in the Salon Doré, he was jolted back to reality a bit as he realized that he was the last one to arrive for the meeting. This meant that business would begin right away. He took a deep breath and refocused his mind on the task at hand.

Without further hesitation, he extended his hand to greet the man closest to him in the room. “It’s good to see you again Chancellor Lowden. How have you been?”

Chancellor Lowden took the President’s hand and gave him a firm handshake.

“Things are going well. I hear America is experiencing an economic renaissance; you will have to share your secret with us.” A wry smile crossed his lips. President Stein tipped his head towards him in acknowledgement and smiled back.

Turning to the next prominent leader in the room, President Stein continued the task of introductions. “Prime Minister Blair, how are things faring in Great Britain?”

“We are doing great. Things are really starting to turn around. I do want to personally thank you for the generous food prices to England and the EU; this will make a big impact in our continued economic recovery,” replied PM Blair.

In response, President Stein made some polite exchange with Blair that the rest of the room did not hear. The two men were not-so-secret fans of one another, and always enjoyed being face-to-face whenever possible. The benefits of teleconferences were a bit overrated in situations like these, especially with the potential security breaches from hackers.

PM Stannis Blair was a strong leader, just as his cousin was, and worked hard to ensure Britain did not lose their British identity despite the recent massive influx of foreign immigrants. Unlike his EU counterparts, he wanted to model more of the British economy around what the Canadians and Americans were doing, especially with regards to their trade agreements with Asia.

After shaking each leader’s hand, President Stein turned to the group and said, “Our goal in the US is to continue to strengthen our military and economic ties with England, the EU and our NATO partners. To that end, we cannot have our friends starving. The Grain Consortium can be used as both a relief program, and as a weapon if need be. The GC is only a month old, and as we get more organized, I can assure you greater quantities of commodities will be made available at reduced prices for those countries in our grand alliance,” Stein said with a warm and disarming smile.

The leaders all nodded their approval; they were a very eager audience. President Stein spent some time going over the finer details of the Grain Consortium program; most of the leaders were taking notes and asking questions during the presentation. They were all very engaged.

As President Stein finished speaking, the group stood for a brief restroom break. As some left the room and others mingled, Henry saw the Canadian PM, Troy Peck, approach him. “Mr. President, on a different topic, I wanted to thank you on behalf of Canada for the help America continues to provide in putting down the civil unrest in Toronto and Vancouver. These extremist Muslims have been causing all sorts of problems across Canada since the Grain Consortium stopped selling food products to the Islamic Republic.”

One of the first initial acts of the GC was a decision to stop selling food products to the IR. It was a known problem that the IR continued to sponsor terrorist organizations globally and was persistently behind efforts to undermine Western governments. They were also continuing to try and expand their empire into Malaysia, the Philippines and Sub-Saharan and East Africa. To that end, the GC made it known that they would not sell food products to the IR until this behavior stopped.

Canada had experienced a demographic change, just as Europe had. Decades of taking in asylum seekers and refugees had changed the religious and social dynamics of the country. The Islamic population made up close to 30 % of the country. In several cities where the Islamic population was closer to 50 %, there were movements to insist that these cities be governed by Sharia Law. There was also a growing crusade nationwide to move the country to Sharia Law and away from the control of the Canadian Constitution.

The Government had, of course, balked at this and civil unrest began to take place all across the various Islamic communities in Canada. Tens of thousands of Canadian citizens had immigrated to the IR, and were likewise encouraging others to as well. Despite the migration of Muslims from Canada to the IR, the ones remaining were doing their best to turn Canada into an Islamic country.

The Canadian administration was clearly overwhelmed by the violence, which had spread from Toronto to the rest of the country. Government workers and police officers were routinely being targeted and killed, and several buildings had been bombed. It was during the height of this violence that Troy Peck had called Henry Stein directly to ask if the US Government would be able to assist Canada in putting down this uprising by these extremist Muslim communities.

At first, President Stein was reluctant to get involved; his main focus was on rebuilding America, and thus he wanted to avoid external conflicts. However, once the US Intelligence Community determined a lot of support for these uprisings was originating from Dearborn, MI, and the Detroit area, the President decided he needed to act in order to keep the same thing from happening within the US.

The President, in agreement with the Canadian government, authorized the use of US Military Forces in Canada. This included the deployment of 5,600 Military Police, 120 Judge Advocate Generals (JAGs) and three Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). There were also six Special Forces A-Teams assigned to support the BCTs. The results of the military engagement were almost immediately successful. Minor disturbances cropped up here and there, but the large-scale riots were gone and violence was on a definite decline.

It was during this tense period that PM Beck and President Stein began to secretly explore the possibility of the US and Canada holding a national referendum to merge their two countries. It was too early to announce anything publicly yet, but there were a lot of back room conversations happening behind the scenes.

“Troy, if Canada needs any additional help, please let me know. I’d be more than happy to deploy additional military police to Canada to help augment your government. We have been fortunate in that we have not experienced the same level of violence or uprising by our own Muslim communities. Of course, the problem really isn’t with Muslims directly, it has more to do with the 1 % to 3 % of radicals within these communities that stir up the problems. As we identify these individuals, we prosecute them under the law or move to deport them,” said Stein as he tried to reassure PM Peck that things would get better.

The President was eager to get the next portion of the meeting started; his arrival had been delayed by nearly thirty minutes, so he felt behind schedule. The leaders filed back in and sat down, and Henry wasted no time. “Switching gears, I wanted to speak with you all about the growing problem with Russia and with the Islamic Republic.” Stein linked his tablet to the holographic device on the table and brought up a floating global map. Next to the map, several intelligence reports, photos and analysis were available for the rest of the group to read through while he spoke. “I feel at this point; conflict is all but inevitable with the Islamic Republic. It is incumbent upon us to make preparations for this battle and ensure that we win.”

As naïve as the leaders of the EU appeared, they also recognized that the massive change in demographics these last 25 years had caused some serious problems between their Muslim immigrants and their European counterparts. The provocative activities of the IR within Western countries and the rest of the world were pushing everyone towards a clash of civilizations.

“Do you really feel that diplomacy will not work?” asked PM Blair, hoping that his own assessment was wrong.

Stein responded, “At this point I do not; we’ve shared our intelligence with you in regards to the Russian build up and the massive troop movement and modernization of the Islamic Republic’s military. They are gearing up with assistance from China and Russia. The questions we have to ask are, ‘How much time do we have?’ and, ‘Who will attack who first?’”

Chancellor Lowden cut in, “—Europe is still recovering from the Depression. We are only now able to adequately provide for our people; we cannot afford to spend additional resources on a military buildup.” He looked concerned while he was speaking, genuinely torn.

“Chancellor Lowden, I understand your economic situation. The US has been in the same situation. You and I both know the EU cannot possibly hope to protect itself with a military force of 130,000 soldiers…. The US cannot protect Europe alone; we need Europe to do their part,” said Stein, nodding towards the photos and intelligence reports floating on the holographic screen.

“With all due respect, Henry, the US does not need to lecture Europe on protecting itself. With the combined forces of Europe and the US, we can more than hold our own against the Russians. The Russians use quantity over quality, which is our advantage over them. Our weapon systems are more precise and we can do more with less,” said Chancellor Lowden.

“That may have been true 20 years ago; however, neither of our countries have invested in new defense technologies, while Russia and China are now leading the world in that arena. A lot has changed. Look at this report here; the Chinese are already integrating robotic exoskeleton suits into some of their combat units. Neither of our countries are even close to incorporating this technology to the same scale they are.” The President brought a new set of documents up, showing the initial preparations the US was starting to make.

“Because of these new developments, I have directed our military to begin a slow buildup; we are adding almost 300,000 additional troops to each of our military services. I highly encourage the UK and EU to begin a rapid buildup of forces as well,” said Stein.

“Henry, I do not know that I can gain the needed support from Parliament to increase the military. I understand the threat; I am just not sure I can gain the political support to do what you are asking,” said Lowden.

Blair concurred. “I fear I will have the same problem. England is struggling, and we still have an unemployment rate of nearly 18 %. Paying for an increase in the military budget will be a tough proposition.”

The President knew this was going to be a hard sell from the beginning. Knowing this, he had come to the table with several options. “Gentlemen, I understand the concerns and the problems that you all will face. However, if we do nothing, it may be too late to act. We need to take action now while we still have time, not wait until after we have been attacked.”

“To help increase your own economic recovery, I ask that you review and approve the new US/EU/UK free trade zone that you see before you. We will remove any tariffs currently in place and ensure that this trade agreement does not outsource jobs away from our respective regions. This will enable goods, services and materials to be sold between our countries without having to pay an extra duty tax. I have also directed the US Treasury to offer 50 year, 2 % interest loans for the sole purpose of rebuilding your militaries,” said Stein.

There was a short pause as the leaders in the room looked over the information in front of them. PM Blair was the first to speak. “This trade deal is excellent news. I am also glad to see that there will be special provisions in place to ensure this is not used to outsource either party’s jobs, just provide tax-free access to goods and services. As to the low interest loans, I will discuss this with our defense minister…. This may be doable.”

Lowden chimed in. “I agree Henry. I will work to have this treaty moved through quickly. As for the military, I will recommend we increase our reserve forces to 600,000 and then slowly start to convert some of them to active duty. We may need to rely more on your defense industry for newer equipment; France and Germany’s defense industry is limited in what we can produce right now.”

Seeing that he had essentially gotten everything he wanted from the meeting, the President handed his tablet back to Monty and rose from his chair. “Gentlemen, I am glad we were able to clear a lot of these issues up. I believe we have a dinner to attend in a couple of hours. Let us break for some drinks and a lighter conversation before we eat and share some of this exceptional French wine.” The men all smiled; Stein always knew how to keep the mood in the room light.

The Grain Consortium was really starting to take shape as more countries joined and food production continued to increase. Stein wanted to leverage the Consortium to ensure the world had enough food and to lower overall global food prices. During the Great Global Depression of the 2020s and early 2030s, close to 2 Billion people died from starvation when the global movement of food goods collapsed. When OPEC (and then the IR) placed a global squeeze on oil, raising the price of a barrel of oil to over $400, things began to break down fast. OPEC and the IR believed they could exploit their control on oil and gain an incredible amount of wealth from the West. What they had actually done was create a Global Depression and caused an interruption in the global supply chain; energy and transportation prices became unsustainable.

However, by June 20^th, there was plenty to smile about. Jeff Rogers stepped into the room and Henry stood up to greet him. “Mr. President, I’m proud to report that the Grain Consortium is starting to get up to speed. We have the food agreements in place with the EU and our NATO allies. We have cut off all food shipments to the Islamic Republic, and China has grudgingly agreed to our food proposal.”

The President motioned for the attendant in the room to pour everyone a fresh cup of coffee. “Jeff, I’m always amazed at how fast you can make deals happen and get things moving. How do you do it?”

With a smile on his face, Jeff replied, “Well Mr. President, running P&G has given me a lot of experience in how to establish a truly global supply chain and negotiate deals that are fair to all parties…I’ve also poached a lot of really good people from a number of Fortune 100 companies,” said Jeff with a snicker.

“I anticipate that next year the GC will really start to hit its stride as the group begins to increase food production,” Jeff said, taking a sip of coffee. “I’m confident it will, and as the years go by, this Consortium will bring a lot of wealth back to our countries, and more importantly, to our lower and middle class workers.”

Monty checked his tablet as a new message popped up. The intelligence reports of the Islamic Republics troop movements had finally come in. The President saw Monty had received a message and asked, “So — what news do you have for me?”

Monty looked up and quickly said, “Sorry to interrupt, Jeff. Sir, we’ve gotten additional intelligence on those troops that were being moved from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. It appears the Islamic Republic has pulled them back to receive additional training. The Intel guys believe most of them will return back to Asia, though our sources have said some of them will stay behind,” explained Monty.

The President had been concerned about the troop deployments, not knowing if the IR was preparing for a potential conflict with Israel or just moving troops around to consolidate their positions globally. He asked, “Did we ever get a full count on how many troops were arriving from Asia?”

Monty looked down at the tablet for a second before returning the President’s gaze. “125,000 troops — our source said about 25,000 will stay behind after their training. It would appear they will be deployed to Iraq to receive additional training.”

The President thought for a moment, then asked, “What training bases are in Iraq? What type of training are they receiving?”

Checking his tablet again, Monty replied, “It appears they are receiving additional training in mechanized infantry operations in Anbar Province, and about 15,000 are going Balad for additional Air Force related training. That training is most likely being provided by the Russians. Our sources and analysts believe the IR is in the process of reorganizing their military force and working to unify their training and equipment.”

Placing the tablet on the couch seat next to him, Monty continued, “Since we stopped selling them spare parts, they are having to reorganize their military forces with newly purchased Russian and Chinese manufactured equipment. Seeing that Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt primarily used American equipment, they have to replace virtually everything.”

The President snickered at that. “It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years as parts for the JF35, F18s, F16s and F15s start to become scarce. It’ll get harder for them to properly field a military until they switch everything over.”

Jeff rarely interjected in anything related to the military, but at this point he added, “They may be using 3D printing to help with parts. If you have original parts, it’s not hard to develop a replica using 3D printing software, and the printers these days are exceptionally good.”

The President thought for a moment, “I had not thought of that — you are correct Jeff. I guess we will have to factor that in.”