The Last Crusade

by Ira Tabankin

  President Bentley arrived in Switzerland to meet with Pope Joseph, he’s surprised when he enters the Pope’s inner office to find the President of Russia waiting for him. Pope Joseph welcomes President Bentley into his office.

  “I think you already know your Russian counterpart.”

  “I’ve not yet had the pleasure to meet him. This is an unexpected surprise, a good surprise. President Putin, It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “And you President Bentley. How was your trip? Any problems?”

  “None, my plane was surrounded by an AWACS and six F22s.”

  “I know, we tracked your flight. An impressive show of force or were you afraid of the Caliphate?”

  The American President laughs,

  “To be honest, I was concerned the Caliphate would do everything possible to block my meeting with the Pope.”

  “They would have. We learned they planned to attack your flight, I ordered the Russian Air Force to intercept their fighters before they could get within eight hundred miles of your plane.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You would have done the same for me. Come, let’s discuss how to cut out the cancer from this world.”

  The last time we tried it the cancer won, we lost the majority of our armor. I’m sure you know how long it takes to build a tank.”

  “I do and I have a new proposal for you, all I ask is you keep an open mind while I explain it to you.”

  “Agreed, as they say, I’m all ears.”

  Pope Joseph listens to President Putin outline his plan which takes President Bentley by surprise.

  Three hours later, President Bentley sips his coffee, he looks at his notes when President Putin asks,

  “What do you think of my proposal?”

  “I admit you’ve surprised me. Of all the things I expected to hear or was briefed to discuss, this wasn’t on the list. I worried how we’d build the invasion force quickly enough before the Caliphate grew too powerful. Off-hand, I think it’s workable and I believe I can sell it to both my military and Congress. Would you be willing to visit America with your military aides to explain the details, I’m sure the military will have questions I won’t be able to answer.”

  Pope Joseph smiles,

  “Mr. President, I have two more surprises for you, we’re going to be joined this evening by two additional dinner guests.”

  “If I had a guess, I’d say you’ve arranged for the Egyptian and Israeli leaders to join us for dinner.”

  “President Putin, I told you even though he’s from America’s south, he’s smart.”

  Putin laughs,

  “Yes, he is. I believe we may be able to complete our holy task this time.”

  Pope Joseph smiles patting President Bentley on the back, I have a question for you,

  “Your Holiness?”

  Mr. Presidents if you don’t object, I’d like to attend the meeting too.”

  “Your Holiness, it would be my pleasure. I’m sure you’ll be welcomed with open arms.”

  “Excellent, let us welcome our two guests who are being escorted to the executive dining room.”

  The five leaders smile sitting at a round table enjoying dinner together, they plan the next Crusade during dinner. President Putin explains his plan which takes the Israeli and Egyptian leaders by surprise. All four national leaders agree to return home to discuss the proposals with their military leaders.

  President Bentley excuses himself after dinner to return home. Air Force One is surrounded by F22s, a tanker, and an AWACS to search the skies around the President’s plane. On the flight home, the President places a secure call to General Green.

  “General, I’d like to pick your brain, you were in charge of our forces in the last Crusade, I just had a meeting with the leaders of Russia, Egypt, and Israel. President Putin laid out a plan which surprised all of us. He said one of our major problems in the first crusade was the lack of commonality with our equipment. None of our equipment used the same ammunition or parts. Each country needed to have their own logistics chain following their forces, the only things we could share were uniforms and fuel. Putin made an out of the box proposal, he offered to supply all of us with his latest tank, the T-14 ARMATA mark 2, which has been updated from what they learned in the Crusade. He has four factories which can build tanks, he says he can supply enough so we’re all using the same tank. He asked that we share our designs for our THAAD and Standard missiles with all so we’ll all have the same air defenses. He offered to supply us with his S400 system for long-range air defense, everyone will use our Patriot, Standard and THAAD missiles for close and medium range defense.”

  “Sir what about fighters?”

  “We all agreed that airplanes are too complex and take too long to build. He’s going to update his boneyard so that he and the Egyptians will use Migs and SUs, we, Israel and NATO will use our planes.”

  “What about command and control?”

  “Everyone agreed to use our AWACS systems since between the Air Force and Navy we have the most planes. General, how good is their T-14 ARMATA?”

  “Sir, I don’t know. It was new before the Crusade, no one in the West has seen one up close, we don’t know much about it.”

  “You will very soon, five are on their way to the testing grounds at Aberdeen, Maryland.”

  “Really? He’s sending us five T-14 ARMATAs?”

  “Yes, they should arrive in two days.”

  “Being an old tanker, I’d give anything to see them.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that. I’d like you to return to the Army and again lead our troops. You know the enemy, the terrain and what we’ll be facing.”

  “Mr. President, I was fired for losing the last Crusade.”

  “You got caught with your pants down, I don’t think anyone would have expected to face ten thousand people armed with RPGs. I’m asking you to return and be the overall American Commander. You’re the only experienced General, who survived the Crusade.”

  “Sir, if you’re serious, I accept.”

  “Excellent! Plan on meeting me in Philly tomorrow, we’ll formalize your position and begin the plans for the Crusade.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “General, I have only one order, it’s an old one, but one that needs to be repeated.”

  “Sir?”

  “Come home with your shield or on it. Am I clear?”

  “Yes, sir, you’re very clear. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

  “General, I know that. This time, there won’t be a retreat, if you don’t defeat the Caliphate, this time, there’s a very good chance they’ll defeat us.”

  “It’s that serious?”

  “Yes, it is. They’ve grown stronger while we lost a lot of our equipment. They’ve had time to build defensive positions, and increase their training. We’ve picked up messages that imply they are planning to invade Europe. You know, if they manage to land on Europe’s shores, they’ll win, Europe doesn’t have the numbers or equipment to stop an invasion. Once they have Europe, it’s only a matter of time before they strike us.”

  “I don’t think they’ll risk invading us, they know they’ll face millions of armed citizens.”

  “They won’t have to land on our shores, they’ll bombard us with long range rockets. They’ll grab France’s WMD, which they can use against us.”

  “Shit.”

  “You understand the problem. I expect to see your outline for a plan tomorrow.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Hanging up the secure phone General Green drinks his coffee which has gotten cold while he was speaking with the new President. How the hell are we going to invade and not allow the Caliphate to pull the same trick, they did before? Is it possible the T-14 ARMATA is so much better than the M1A2? Can Putin build enough of them to supply us with enough? We’re going to require over ten thousand, how are we going to train enough people in the time we have available. He’s right about the Caliphate growing stro
nger while we have been rebuilding our forces and licking our wounds, they’ve built and trained their military. While we sit around blaming each other, they grow stronger. While we paused to have an election, they appointed a single military commander. While we debated strategy, they refined and improved theirs. This is going to be a tough nut to crack, we were over confident, we thought we’d scare them into surrendering, hell, we were facing Arabs, the Israeli’s kicked their asses every time they met each other on the field of battle. The result was we were over confident, we got our asses handed to us. We got chased out of their land. We ran home with our tail between our legs. Our defeat made Vietnam look good. As normal, we planned on fighting the last war, not the current one. We need a new plan, one that will surprise the shit out of them. The plan has to be something they don’t see coming.

  @@@@@

  General Green arrives in Philadelphia before dawn, he’s not familiar with the city’s new layout. For security reasons, there aren’t any published maps of the new capital online. He decided to arrive extra early in case it was going to take the time to clear security surrounding the new capital. He’s surprised to see construction people working around the clock, he isn’t surprised to see Patriot and THAAD batteries surrounded by M1A2 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. Every soldier is awake and alert. He’s stopped five miles outside of the city. The guards are surprised a general officer would be traveling alone before dawn. General Green shows his email from the President at each security stop. It takes him two hours to clear security and be escorted to the new White House which he quickly learns is like an iceberg, more of it is underground than above. The White House has seven basements, one of which is the President’s living quarters. The real business of the government is now being conducted underground, the President joked, telling everyone due to the war, the government is now run by Morlocks.

  General Green is escorted to the seventh basement, led into a conference room, he’s surprised to see two other four-star Generals, a four-star Admiral, three industry consultants and, of course, the President sitting at the table waiting for him.

  “Sir, I’m sorry I’m late, passing through security took longer than I expected.”

  “Don’t worry about it, we were informed when you checked in at the first checkpoint. I asked everyone to join us so we could save time. Gentlemen, I’d like to officially introduce our first Five Star General since the Second World War, General of the Army, General Frank Green.”

  It took a moment for the President’s introduction to register on General Green’s face.

  “Sir?”

  “Congratulations General, I’m proud to pin on your new rank tabs. Now that we’ve gotten the pleasantries out of the way, I’ve asked the consultants to join us so they can explain the production capacity issues.”

  Each industry rep goes over a list of weapons and production rates. President Bentley gets more frustrated as each PowerPoint presentation drags on. He listens for ninety minutes before slapping the conference room table,

  “This is all nice if we were in normal times. However, we’re at war! In the Second World War, we built ships and tanks like crackerjacks. Why are you telling me it’s going to take two years to build a fighter and three years working 24/7 to build a destroyer? The damn Empire State Building was built in four hundred and ten days! We can’t wait! What’s it going to take for you to realize we’re not in normal times? We need new equipment and we need it NOW!”

  The rep from Lockheed Martin looks at the President,

  “Sir, every system today is much more complicated than the ones we used in the Second World War. There’s a lot more paperwork and regulations, …”

  “Screw the regulations, we need equipment and we need it yesterday. Tell me how to cut through the bullshit.”

  General Green shakes his head,

  “Sir, I think we’re going to have to seriously consider Putin’s offer to equip the Crusader Army with his T-14 ARMATA tanks. I know we were trying to bring planes back to life from the Bone Yard, what happened to that effort?”

  The Four Star Air Force General stands,

  “General Green, I’m Air Force General Bradford, when the Crusade ended, I issued orders to stop wasting resources trying to bring back old aircraft, instead, I ordered the F35 to be accelerated.”

  He sat with an all knowing smile on his face.

  General Green shook his head,

  “General, how many additional F35s will be built?”

  “General, we expect to be able to add an additional two fighters this year, five next year and fifteen in the third year.”

  “General, what happens when that one golden fighter is shot down, should we tell the Caliphate to wait while we build another plane? In the same time, how many F16s and F4s could be brought back to life?”

  “Sir, that’s not the question, the F16 and F4 are old fighters, they’re not stealthy/their radar isn’t up to that of the F35.”

  “Doesn’t the F16 and the F4 carry more ordnance? Doesn’t the F16 beat the F35 in a dog fight?”

  “Sir, we all know the age of dogfighting is over…”

  “That’s what you shit-heads said in Vietnam, if I remember right, we had to add gun pods to F4s. I’d rather have a squadron of F16s and F4s than one of the F35s.”

  “Sir, that’s why you’re the Army and I’m Air Force, you don’t get to make that decision.”

  President Bentley smiles,

  “General, I make those decisions, and my decision is, you’re relieved of duty, send in your aide.”

  “Sir….”

  “Secret Service, please escort the General out of the conference room, I just accepted his resignation.”

  Chapter 12

  President Bentley shakes his head,

  “General, I agree with you and the Russians, quantity has its own quality. We need numbers, we need to be able to absorb losses and have reserve equipment. Let’s drive down to Maryland and take a look at the Russian tank.”

  “Yes, sir. I have an updated inventory, it turns out we have just under 3,800 M1 tanks, that’s counting those in the National Guard, reserves and depots.”

  “Didn’t we fight the first Gulf War with M60s?”

  “Sir, the Marines used updated M60s while they were waiting for their M1s.”

  “Please find out how many M60s can be brought back to life and how quickly the plant in Ohio can produce new M1s.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  An aide hands General Green a note, he smiles showing it to the President who also smiles,

  “Well, that’s a little bit of good news. Tell them to repaint the tanks. Saudi Arabia ordered M1A2s before they were overthrown and taken over by the Mahdi. There are three hundred fifty new tanks sitting at a shipping port waiting for approval to be sent overseas. I guess we’ll have to give them their tanks, just not the way they thought they would receive them. Three hundred fifty additional brand new tanks is a good starting point. Maybe the Bone Yard can quickly rebuild everything in storage. We should have been more like our Russian friends, they never throw any military equipment away, they kept it in warehouses in case they need it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The guards at the Aberdeen testing base are shocked when they’re told the President and General of the Army will be arriving in two hours. The base commander starts issuing orders to his staff.

  “What do they want here?”

  His aide shakes his head,

  “Sir, maybe they want to see the Russian tanks which arrived.”

  “I don’t know why they’d want to see a Russian tank, everyone knows the Abrams is the world’s best tank.”

  “Sir, because we need tanks and we need them in a hurry. We can’t build them fast enough; the Russians say they can supply us with tanks.”

  “I’m not going to stand by and watch American boys fight from a Russian shit can.”

  “Sir, I think you should review the specs of the T-14 ARMATA.”

  “I�
��ll study the finished test report, in what, six months? A year? Maybe you can drag out the testing for two years.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The five Russian T-14 ARMATAs are parked in front of the executive offices. Russian soldiers are checking them for the President’s inspection. President Bentley and General Green stop at the Russian tanks before entering the base’s executive offices. The tanks are surrounded by secret service and armed security troops. The President chats with the Russians while General Green accepts an invitation to climb into one of the tanks.