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

South of the Border

“Colonel Zedillo, we have received final confirmation. We are to begin the coup immediately. Send the word to our people to start arresting the various commanders and military officers we know will not cooperate and replace them with ones that will. I want this done within the next two hours. We are to commence with the coup by the end of the day” General Galván said.

“Yes, General. We shall have everyone in position soon,” Colonel Zedillo said as he began to send a coded text message to let everyone know the coup was going to take place that day.

General Guillermo Galván was an egotistical narcissist who had a god complex. He truly believed he could one day become President or take control of the country and lead Mexico to new greatness. His tenacity, skill and determination had led him to become the second highest ranking general in the Mexican Army. For years he had fought the cartels, until two years ago when he was approached by a member of the IR intelligence service. They had offered him five hundred million NAD to stop attacking the cartels and to start cooperating with them.

The IR’s goal was for him to form a partnership with the cartels to take over the country and ensure the Americans would not pose a threat to his government once he completed his overthrow of the current government. If he was able to successfully plan and execute the coup, he would have their full support to become the new President. He would need to continue to turn a blind eye to the cartels and to change his country’s stance towards the US. The IR reasoned with the General that by incorporating the cartels into the government, a prearranged percentage of revenue made by the sale of drugs globally would be given to the government. The IR would then ask for permission to base soldiers in Mexico and he should accept.

Colonel Jose Zedillo was the commander of the soldiers that protected the Presidential Palace and the Mexican government. General Galván had been able to recruit most of his officers with money provided by the IR and assurances that they would receive promotions and more authority under his regime.

When the coup finally happened, it transpired quickly, despite some army units refusing to be a part of it. Their commanding officers were quickly eliminated as well as any other individuals who wanted to resist. The IR had numerous Special Forces groups assisting the Mexican Army with securing important government institutions and military bases as well as eliminating opposition and potential opposition leaders. The first two days of the coup were bloody; thousands of people within the government, media, and individuals identified by the Islamic Republic intelligence network were killed and others with needed skills and political leanings contrary to America were installed. Within two days, the entire country had been secured with help from the military; the police had no resistance or violence from the cartels.

At first, the US stood on the sidelines to see what would happen. Within five days of General Galván taking over the country, several governors refused to recognize him as the new leader. Several military units whose commanders had not been replaced also revolted against the coup; the situation in Mexico appeared to be quickly dissolving into a civil war. Those governors who initially stood up to the military dictatorship being imposed were quickly killed by IR Special Forces units at the request of General Galván. It then became apparent to the US President and his advisors that the level of involvement by the Islamic Republic was much greater than could have been anticipated.

The IR quickly recognized the new military dictatorship and even the cartels aligned themselves with the rebels. IR military advisors and Special Forces who were already in Mexico began to assist the Mexican army in neutralizing the loyalists, with assurances from the IR that an additional 10,000 troops would arrive by air to further assist the new government.

For the IR, the situation played out exactly how they had hoped. Mexico was becoming a base of operations that would necessitate an intervention by the American military. The ensuing battle that would rage in Mexico would tie down American forces, keeping them from being quickly mobilized for the coming fight with Israel. Once the Americans did intervene, the IR sleeper agents would then start their part of Operation Allah’s Judgement and would rain chaos and terror on the American people for the next three months until it was time to deliver Allah’s Swords.

As it became clear that Mexico was going to become a base for IR forces in North America and that the Mexican government was going to become a narco-state sponsored military dictatorship, President Stein saw no other option than to intervene in Mexico. The Pentagon had been working on a war plan to capture and then integrate Mexico as a US Territory for nearly six months. Units had been identified along with equipment that would be needed. The President only needed to give the order and within three days the operation could begin.

On September 26^th, President Stein gave the order for Operation Brimstone. The President brought in the Congressional leadership of all parties and had the National Security Advisor, Director of the CIA, Director of DHS and the Secretary of Defense brief them on the situation in Mexico and explain the finer points of Operation Brimstone. At the end of the meeting, the President asked for approval for the operation. Support was unanimous from the FP and Republican Party leadership and their representatives. Several Democrats also voted for the campaign, despite most voting against it.

On the morning of September 29^th, US Forces began hostilities in Mexico with devastating effectiveness, attacking by land, air and sea across the US southern border, the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of fighters, drones and cruise missiles began to hit critical military targets all across Mexico, with hundreds of Special Forces and American paratroopers landing all across the country securing airports, critical bridges and military command and control centers.

The day after President Stein announced the US was going to intervene in the Mexican Civil War to restore order, the IR activated one of their direct action teams to start their attacks. These outbreaks of violence would continue to escalate in frequency until the final two assaults, when IR agents would direct a full insurrection and rioting of several major cities.

Nagim Abdullah had just finished his coffee and was returning back to work when he received a text message. He quickly checked his phone and understood that his particular group had just been activated. Nagim had succeeded in obtaining a warehouse position shortly after his arrival from Oman a year ago as a political refugee. He had been recruited by the IR intelligence service to be a group leader for a direct action unit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, just prior to leaving Oman.

His orders were to obtain a low-level job that would draw little attention and wait to be activated. They had given him three targets to attack; the first was a mall located in the downtown area. If he survived the attack at the first target, then he would proceed to his next target, which was a movie theater in one of the suburbs.

His orders were simple; spend no more than three minutes in the mall shooting as many people as possible and then quickly get away. Lay low for twelve hours and then conduct the next attack. He would continue to move down his target list until he was either killed or he completed his mission. Once the assignment was complete, he was to head to Detroit where the IR had a major operation planned.

Since the authorization of Operation Brimstone, the President had requested a brief every twelve hours until the country had been fully secured.

“Mr. President, the first 48 hours of Operation Brimstone have been completed. There were 1,353 bombing sorties, which hit various military and strategic targets all across Mexico, with a special emphasis on hitting the known cartels’ positions. While this has been taking place, 30 Special Forces A-Teams began hitting every known cartel safe house, drug factory and leadership residency location. They were either directing the air strikes on the ground or quickly following in afterwards with ground forces to ensure the targets were killed,” General Branson said.

“Delta Force was tasked with attacking the central military command base in Mexico City and quickly apprehended General Galván while they were trying to organize a defense of the city and country. They also captured and secured the Presidential Palace,” General Branson said, giving the President a minute to ask questions before he continued with the brief.

“Please continue, General,” said the President.

“The 75th Ranger Regiment conducted a combat jump directly onto the Mexico City International airport and secured it for follow-on forces. The entire XVIII Air Borne Corps, all 35,000 of them, completed their combat jumps and hit over a dozen locations across Mexico City. They also landed with their Light Tactical Vehicles (LTVs) and two battalions of the new light tank drones. They are currently securing the remainder of the city and expect to have it fully secured within the next 72 hours. We have an MP Brigade landing at the international airport who will assume the policing duties in the city so that the airborne units can start to move to their other objectives outside city borders.”

“Our Navy quickly neutralized the Mexican Navy, either capturing what ships they could in port with the SEALs, or destroying the ones they could not capture. 1^st Marines led the charge across Southern California, securing Tijuana and moving through the Baja Peninsula. 2^nd and 3^rd Marines are making various amphibious landings all across the Gulf Coast of Mexico.”

“1^st Armored Division out of Ft. Hood is leading the ground invasion from Texas, along with the 1^st Calvary Division out of Ft. Bliss. The 4^th Army Division has several battalions securing positions across the Arizona and New Mexico borders, with the rest of the division pushing inland through the desert. The commanders on the ground believe the majority of Mexico will be secured within the next 96 hours and full occupation of the country will be accomplished within 10 days as more follow-on forces arrive and begin to move to every major city in Mexico.”

“It still amazes me how fast our forces were able to capture and secure most of the country,” said the President, genuinely impressed.

“Mexico is not that far from most of our military bases, and sharing a thousand-mile border does make it a lot easier to invade. We also had the element of complete surprise, thanks to your speech earlier about the US taking a “wait and see” attitude towards the new government. They were completely lulled into a false sense of security,” Eric Clarke said with a smile.

“I want to make sure that once follow-on forces are in Mexico that we extract our frontline troops so they are ready for any other surprises. I did not think the IR would have gotten involved so soon, nor have as many people on the ground as they did,” said Eric Clarke with a bit of concern in his voice.

“They caught a lot of people by surprise with that,” said Patrick Rubio, the Director of the CIA. The CIA was starting to catch a lot of flak in the media and by the DOD for not knowing there were already several thousand IR troops in Mexico.

“How many casualties have we taken, and has there been much resistance?”

General Branson resumed his brief to answer the President’s question. “Resistance was heavy the first day. The A-Teams had 12 Killed in Action (KIA) and 37 Wounded in Action (WIA), the SEALs had 17 KIA and 31 WIA; Delta Force lost a lot, 31 KIA and 67 WIA.”

“Why did Delta take so many casualties?”

“They had the toughest, most well-defended target; the military headquarters compound was heavily guarded by Mexican and IR Special Forces. They put up one heck of a fight before they were able to capture General Galván,” said Branson.

“Sorry for interrupting, please continue General.”

“During the airborne operation to secure the Mexico City International Airport the 75th Rangers suffered 19 KIA and 124 WIA and secured the airport within two hours. They also repelled two separate uncoordinated attacks by the Mexican Army. That concludes the Special Forces casualties; the rest of the Army had 293 KIA and another 2,321 WIA, the Marines 312 KIA and 1,543 WIA, the Navy lost 43 KIA and 132 WIA, and the Air Force lost 27 KIA and 254 WIA. We expect casualties to continue to climb as additional follow-on forces arrive and as more objectives are secured throughout the country. Most of the military has either surrendered or been killed; there are some of the hardcore units that faded away and will probably cause some problems down the road.”

“The cartels have also been putting up a good fight, though they are also melting away into the population, so we’ll need to hunt them down. The MANPADS the IR provided have caused us a lot of problems; we’ve lost 13 helicopters, 46 drones and four aircraft that flew a little too low. We are also starting to see more use of those RPG-7Vs as well,” said Branson as he concluded his brief.

“Gentlemen, I’m impressed with our success thus far. I want to make sure it continues, so please use whatever resources and troops are needed to pacify the country quickly. I want law and order restored soon and I want a return to normalcy, or as close to it as possible.”

Knowing the domestic aspects of Mexico and America still needed to be discussed, the President changed the direction of the meeting and asked for his domestic advisors to begin their brief. “Moving to domestic matters, Jim, I believe you had some information you wanted to share — but prior to us getting into that, I want to make sure everyone is working towards stabilizing Mexico. I want the FBI to hire an additional 1,500 Special Agents and start to identify Spanish speaking agents who can start setting up field offices in Mexico. I want the DOJ to start developing their plan for criminal prosecutors and a police force,” said the President as he looked over the men and women at the table.

“I have my best people working on this Mr. President; we have several plans underway right now to accomplish that goal. I will have more details about this in my brief with you tomorrow,” said Attorney General James Roberts.

AG Roberts had been a federal prosecutor prior to being named the AG. He was a tenacious prosecutor and had spent the first few years as AG repealing hundreds of presidential memos and directives that previous administrations had issued in direct violation of the Constitution. Churches were no longer required to report their attendance or their membership base. Sharia Law was no longer being tolerated in any city in America. The cities and townships that had allowed this now had to abide by the laws of the United States government, not Sharia.

The Sharia Law challenge had created a lot of problems between those who were Muslim and those who were not. There was a high tolerance for people to practice their own religious beliefs in America, but all religions had to respect and abide by the laws of the United States. Likewise, the sanctuary cities were no longer allowed. City governments that refused to enforce federal law were being denied all federal funding until they became compliant. The city governments that were still in violation after the one-year compliancy period were dissolved, and a state caretaker government was installed until a new election could be held.

AG Roberts had taken a lot of heat for his reforms within the DOJ and the legal system. His primary goal had been to reform the justice department back to its original stated purpose, to return the judiciary back to interpreting the law and constitution, no longer tolerating judges who legislate from the bench. Laws could be struck down or upheld, but no judge could impose a new law or opinion that could be interpreted as a new law. Roberts was a true constitutionalist and loyal party member.

“Excellent, I look forward to learning more about them tomorrow then. Jorge, can you please go ahead and give us your brief?”

“Yes Mr. President. The NSA intercepted several communiques between several known IR intelligence individuals and people in the US. They were not able to glean any usable information from the messages, but they believe they were coded messages for something, perhaps to activate some terrorist cells or just a status report on our operations in Mexico. They still have a few thousand soldiers and operatives operating in Mexico,” Jorge said as he clicked through several images of known IR intelligence agents suspected of being in the US and Mexico. Suddenly, a Secret Service agent walked over to the President and whispered something in his ear.

As the agent softly communicated something in the President’s ear, his eyes grew a little larger and his demeanor changed. “Sorry to interrupt Jorge — I was just informed by the Secret Service that we should turn on Fox News; there has been a terrorist attack in Philadelphia.”

An aide quickly changed the 3D holographic image in the situation room to Fox News, where a news update was being aired live from a shopping mall in Philadelphia. A Fox News woman by the name of Nina Short was in the process of providing an update on the situation at the mall as it developed.

“We are standing outside of the Mayfair Mall, where twenty minutes ago, five men were seen running into the food court entrance to the mall wearing baseball caps and dark sunglasses, each of them carrying an AR-15 style rifle with small backpacks.”

“We were able to interview a survivor who told us what she saw.” The camera panned to a woman who was clearly shaken and had blood spatters on her blouse. She explained, “As they entered the building, three of the men ran past the food court to the center of the mall and began to shoot everyone they could see. The two individuals at the door to the food court opened fire, shooting and reloading as they walked through the food court. After firing at people throughout the food court and mall for what felt like an eternity, they began to work their way back to the food court exit. Then I saw a security guard shoot two of the suspects before they killed him. One of the attackers was left behind by his partners while the other was able to retreat out of the mall. I was hiding under one of the tables, but managed to catch most of the event on my smartphone.”

The camera returned back to Nina Short as she continued, “Upon leaving the mall, the individuals then sped away in their vehicle. The FBI and police told us they have issued a BOLO for the suspects’ vehicle and are asking the public for help or video footage of the event.”

“—Enough. Turn it off. Do we know how many people were killed and do we have any idea who they are?”

“I just received an update from the agent in charge at scene right now,” said the Director of the FBI as she looked up from her tablet. “She is reporting 87 people killed and 107 people injured. The suspect who was shot by the security guard has been transported to a local hospital to be treated for his wounds.”

“She said they plan on questioning him as soon as he is out of surgery. We should have an ID on the suspect shortly as they run his prints and facial image against our databases,” Jane Smart said.

“Jane, I want answers soon. Find out who this person is and if this is a lone wolf attack or if this is related to our operation in Mexico or something else.”

“Yes, Mr. President. I believe I should excuse myself and work on this with my people right away, if I may leave?”

“Yes, please get us an update as soon as possible. Keep Jorge and James apprised of any changes; I want the NSA cross-checking this as well. A chorus of “Yes, Mr. President,” echoed throughout the room.

The President turned towards his National Security Advisor and said, “Mike, can you please give us a shorter version of your brief so we can be ready to handle this new situation as we receive more information?”

“Yes, Mr. President. The intercepts from the Middle East indicate something is going on. We have seen a lot of military orders and activity within the IR. They appear to be moving a lot of forces to the provinces of Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Some of these movements appear to coincide with a major military exercise that they are holding towards the end of the November; others appear to be new unit assignments to bases in those areas.”

“The cause for concern is that most of these units are their Tier 1 frontline units. The best equipped and trained units are all moving to within striking range of Israel, with the majority of these forces and support units being in position around the time of the exercise.”

“Why is this important, Mike?” asked the President.

“At first we did not think anything of this; however, the Chinese are conducting a massive naval and amphibious exercise throughout December, and the Russians are conducting a similar size exercise in Eastern Europe in the middle to the end of January. This is a lot of military activity by these three nations, all within a very close timeframe, suggesting this might be a coordinated effort of a much larger plan,” said Jim.

“Not to discount the information or your group’s analysis — are we sure this is not a legitimate exercise as opposed to something more sinister?” asked Monty, the President’s Chief of Staff.

“Perhaps. Right now there are several alternatives other than something more sinister. I’ve re-tasked a lot of our Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (or ISR and HUMINT assets) to find more information. We will continue to monitor it and ensure nothing else is going on.”

“All right gentlemen. Let’s table this for the moment and focus on the immediate tasks at hand, stabilizing Mexico and reestablishing law and order. And let’s identify who these men are that perpetrated this dastardly terrorist attack today.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” chorused the whole room.

The IR had initiated the Mexican coup in mid-September, anticipating that the Americans would intervene in a month or two — not immediately. They had not anticipated the swiftness of the American military, or their ability to destroy the Mexican Army and occupy the country so quickly.

Nearly all past American interventions had been in the Middle East, Asia and Europe, far from America’s home bases. Unlike past interventions, Mexico shared a thousand-mile border with the US; nearly all of the military units involved were located within a thousand miles of Mexico City, meaning there was very little in the way of logistical problems or far distances for their forces to travel.

“The Americans have secured Mexico faster than we originally thought they could. Our advisors were unfortunately not able to prevent the Mexican army from collapsing as quickly as it did either,” said Huseen, the Director of Intelligence.

“The MANPADS did bring down a number of helicopters, drones and aircraft; they should continue to destroy aircraft as the occupation continues. Some of the Mexican military units were smart and faded away quickly as soon as it became clear that the Americans had taken out the military leadership. They are now carrying out guerilla attacks as often as they can,” General Hamza said, ensuring that the Caliph knew that not everything had failed in the operation.

“Our operatives in the country are currently working to establish a grassroots level insurgency as we speak. It will take time, but they are confident attacks against the Americans will start to increase in the weeks and months to come,” said General Rafi, the IR Special Operations Commander.

“Excellent, General. Please continue the good work and keep us informed. I am disappointed in how fast Mexico was taken; I take solace in knowing that our Special Forces and military advisors have inflicted a lot of casualties and will continue to do so. For the rest of our plan to work, we need the level of violence to continue to increase in Mexico in order to tie down the American troops,” commanded the Caliph.

“On another note — have the Americans figured out our involvement in the Philadelphia attack?” the Caliph inquired, hoping the answer was no.

“Not yet. They captured one of the attackers, but he did not know anything that would lead them back to us. I ordered the next group to begin their attack; they should begin tonight. The first group will begin their second attack in two days — they had to lay low and regroup after the mall attack. I’ll initiate the third group right away. By the time we have all eight groups active, the Americans are going to be going crazy,” Huseen said with a devilish grin.