True Faith and Allegiance

65

The President of the United States stood in front of a roomful of reporters, like a target in a shooting gallery. It was nine a.m. on a Sunday, all the news shows were covering this live, and the twenty-four-hour networks would run a simultaneous feed of the carnage in Chicago on one half of the screen while the President spoke on the other half.

Ryan started with prepared remarks. He’d long ago banned the use of the cliché “shocked and saddened” by his speechwriters, but since he’d written the majority of today’s opening statement, he’d realized how hard it was to avoid the phrase.

After an expression of grief and horror, and a promise the government would not rest until the attacks in the United States by Abu Musa al-Matari stopped, he opened the floor for questions.

A reporter for CBS raised her hand. When Ryan called on her she said, “In light of the Islamic State’s ability to bring the war to America, do you plan to put boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria to take the war back to them?”

“Shelly, as you know, we have boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Special mission units are over there, as well as aircraft of all shapes and sizes and the support elements for them. We are partnering with our coalition, and our strategy is working. The geographical footprint of the Islamic State in the region is shrinking, as is their total number of fighters.

“But as they lose ground, they must gain headlines. Headlines are far easier to achieve than battlefield victories. The ISIS operatives in America at the moment are few in number, but their effect is well out of proportion to their physical strength. If they are not seen as dangerous and powerful, ISIS will stop pulling in fresh meat, new cannon fodder, and it will not survive as anything other than a bad idea.

“Look at what we’ve done in the past three years. We’ve killed and captured top Islamic State leadership. We’ve committed offensive airpower, and special operations troops, CIA, DIA, and other intel agencies are on the ground there. We’ve encouraged our NATO partners to be more engaged in that region.

“We’ve funded some of the Kurdistan militias and the Iraqi Security Force, trained them up, given them state-of-the-art communications equipment.

“We are winning the land war against the Islamic State without putting a brigade of Marines in Baghdad and sending them west into ISIS-held territory. This strategy is working better than any other plan out there, and the reason it is working over there is exactly the reason they are attacking over here.

“Last night’s attack is part of a trap they are trying to lay for us, to get us to move in numbers to their home turf. But we aren’t falling for it.”

Shelly followed up. “So, again, no new call to increase military operations in the Middle East?”

Ryan looked at the woman for a moment. “Shelly, you and your network have come out against literally every military act I have ever ordered in my time as President. You’ve been against every CIA initiative that came to light when I ran the CIA. Suddenly it seems as if you are a proponent of a massive land war in the Middle East.”

Shelly did not reply.

“No… we will not give them their land war. We will fight them with both resistance and resilience.”

He next called on a reporter for CNN, a woman he knew hated him and everything he stood for. She’d made a name for herself subtly and not so subtly editorializing under the guise of straight news, and all her opinions ran counter to Ryan’s policies. “What do you say to those who simply suggest they hate us for what we do to them? That the very nature of our attacks on them have caused them to finally come over here as a way to defend themselves? As you know, they have been carefully selecting military and intelligence targets. Targets which, you would agree, America itself considers fair game in war. How do you reply to those who say simply that if we just left them alone, they would leave us alone?”

Ryan said, “Juliet, you are with CNN, you have spent years working international postings, am I right about that?”

“Many years, Mr. President, primarily in the Middle East, which is why my experience in the region indicates to me that—”

“Sorry. You asked me to respond to ‘those who say.’ Are you now saying you are the one saying that we should leave ISIS alone so we can enjoy peace?”

Undeterred, Juliet Robbins shook her head and answered quickly. “I’m asking the question, Mr. President. Certainly you are aware of the criticism.”

“Of course I am.” He could hear cameras clicking as he organized his thoughts. “In all your travels over the world, Juliet, have you ever met a group of people who were completely pacifist?”

“I have, Mr. President. The Buddhists, for example, and with all due respect I don’t see the Islamic State blowing up hotels and city streets in Nepal.” Ryan could see her sense of superiority with her answer, and her chin rose slightly. If she had been holding a microphone, Ryan imagined she would have dropped it and walked out of the room.

Ryan nodded. “You’re right about that, but that has a lot to do with geographical separation, the secluded nature of Nepal, and the lack of live television cameras.”

“Your opinion, Mr. President. My opinion, and that of many learned academics, is that the Buddhists aren’t attacked like we are because they don’t meddle in other people’s affairs like we do.”

Ryan smiled. “Have you ever heard of the Yazidis?”

Now Juliet Robbins blinked hard. Ryan could see the wheels spinning in her brain as her face changed expression. “Of course, and I am not—”

“You talked, Juliet. You talked at length to set up your question, to establish your authority, and to make your opinions known. Now you will allow me to answer. Yes, the Yazidis are much like the Buddhists, aren’t they, in that they don’t have much, if any, real physical defense from the outside world? A passive community. I wonder why you didn’t think to mention them in a discussion of the Islamic State. After all, you are an expert, as you mentioned, on the region from which the Yazidis come. Are you also an expert on Nepal?”

“No, Mr. President, but your question—”

“Your question, Juliet, was, Why we don’t just leave the Islamic State alone so they will treat us better? Well, I’ll answer you by talking about the Yazidis. They lived on Sinjar Mountain, in a Kurdish-held area, and they’ve been there for hundreds of years, not bothering anyone. Even when the Islamic State moved into that territory four years ago, the Yazidis continued to stay for the most part on their mountain, though they were all but unarmed, all but unprotected.

“And then ISIS came up the mountain to root them out. The Yazidis were slaughtered, burned alive, killed ritualistically, sold into slavery. And this increased the flood of membership into the Islamic State. People all over the world joined ISIS when they saw what they did to the Yazidis, as well as others. So the group you think will behave with kindness if only met with kindness is, obviously, a death cult. Nothing more.”

Juliet Robbins started to speak again, but Ryan talked over her.

“So two questions for you, Juliet, and for all of those who agreed with her long preamble about turning the other cheek and simply allowing this scum to increase in size and scope. Do you think the United States of America, with friends and allies in the Middle East, with necessary business to do in the Middle East, should simply lay down all our guns and become pacifist like the Yazidis? And, if so, why do you think the Islamic State would treat us any better?

“I am not here to disrespect anyone’s religion. I am here to do my best to protect America and its allies, and if perversions of one particular religion endanger the men, women, children, and ideals I’ve sworn an oath to protect, then I will use every tool in my toolbox as President of the United States to defeat those responsible, and the ideas that give them strength and perpetuate their evil cause.

“I don’t believe, as you clearly do, in appeasing them. I agree with Winston Churchill, who said an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

“If you want to say we could all be as gentle as a Buddhist to earn a repayment in kindness from those who slaughtered thousands of perfectly gentle Yazidis, then your credibility on the matter is called into question. I will go elsewhere for my advice. I’m sorry, Juliet, you have a worldview that is probably very well-meaning, and surely accurate on many issues, but on this… I’m going to think about the Yazidis I have met, and I’m going to think about all the Yazidis I was unable to meet, and I will use them to decide if pacifism is a reasonable response to terror.”

As Juliet Robbins tried to compose a suitable retort, Ryan looked elsewhere in the room. “Next question?”

After the press conference Ryan returned to the Oval to find Arnie Van Damm waiting for him. Ryan just said, “I know, Arnie. I was too hard on Robbins.”

Arnie said, “Screw it, Jack. Glad you gave her hell.”

Ryan said, “I’m glad you’re glad, but if I lose you as the good angel on my shoulder, then I’m in trouble.”

Arnie said, “We’ve both been up here too long. I wanted to resign on the spot, grab the mic from you, then tell Juliet she could fly to Raqqa and try turning the other cheek herself.”

Jack Ryan gave half a smile, his first laugh in days. “You are irreplaceable, but it would almost be worth it just to get a front-row seat to watch that.”

Arnie said, “You and me, two old guys talking about what we would do if given half a chance.”

“Right,” Ryan said. “Better we focus our time on what we can do to make a difference around here.”