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Monroe Doctrine

Page 26

by James Rosone


  Suddenly, Esteban became aware that in his peripheral vision, there was someone at the perimeter of the port snapping photos. He really wanted to tell Colonel Diaz next to him about that person. But he knew if he did, he’d lose his position as the port manager. Heck, he’d be lucky if they didn’t kill him.

  Esteban had ensnared himself in this web of deceit with a woman—he should have said no to her at that restaurant. She was just so attractive, and he was weak. Now his secret was being held over his head like the sword of Damocles, waiting to fall at a moment’s notice if he didn’t provide certain pieces of information from time to time. One of these days, he’d figure out how he could untangle himself from this web. Until then, he needed to keep doing what he was doing and not attract attention.

  *******

  US Southern Command

  Doral, Florida

  General Kurt Stavridis looked Major General Gary Bridges in the eyes. Bridges and Stavridis had known each other for a long time. Stavridis came from a long line of military officers. His older brother was a retired admiral who had once been in command of this COCOM and then NATO nearly a decade earlier.

  “Gary, it’s only the two of us in my office,” Stavridis began. “You’ve been studying the situation down in Cuba, Venezuela, and El Salvador longer than me. I need a frank no-BS assessment. How big a threat are those PLA units they’ve deployed there to our forces and the southern half of the United States?”

  “The equipment they had before last week was a problem. The newest equipment they brought in last night will complicate things immensely,” Gary replied.

  “Expound on that,” said Stavridis as he reached for his coffee cup.

  “Ten months ago, the PLA brought in a battalion of HQ-9 Red Banner surface-to-air missile systems. They sold the Cubans two battalions’ worth of the equipment. Throughout the last ten months, the Cubans took delivery of the systems and the PLA maintained their battalion in place as a training unit. That means they have at least three battalions of some of the most advanced SAMs in the world positioned on the island.”

  Kurt nodded. “OK, that certainly presents a challenge, but what happened last night that has you so concerned you wanted to speak with me privately?”

  Gary opened up a folder and pulled out a couple of pictures. It was clear they had been taken with a night vision lens.

  “These are from last night. An Agency source that’s provided us with incredibly accurate and reliable information for nearly a year obtained them. This is at the Port of Mariel, forty kilometers west of Havana. As you can see, these are images of a TEL system. An 8×8 wheeled transporter erector launcher. If you look at this image here of the actual missile pod, these trucks are equipped with long sword 10s or CJ-10s. They’re a land-attack cruise missile, capable of carrying a five-hundred-pound high-explosive warhead or a low-yield tactical nuclear warhead,” Gary explained as he showed Kurt half a dozen images of the trucks, the missile pod from different vantage points and the trucks marshalling into a convoy as they offloaded from the ship.

  Kurt only shook his head as he took in the information in disbelief. “This is like the Cuban Missile Crisis, only this time we weren’t able to block the Cubans from receiving the missiles.”

  Gary nodded in agreement. “While these are bad, this…this is the real problem we have to worry about.”

  Gary pulled out a few new photos. They showed the same eight-wheeled vehicle, but instead of a CJ-10 missile pod, this one had a single missile that extended the entire length of the vehicle with DF-17 clearly stenciled on the sides.

  Gary explained, “I spoke with our DIA LNO about this when it came in this morning. He said the DF-17 has a strategic range of eleven hundred to sixteen hundred miles. They can hit nearly any of our military bases or assets across the entire lower half of the country. Worse, my DIA guy pointed to this modification here, on the missile body. He said it looks like these missiles have been modified to include an HGV system. I had no idea what that was, but he told me it stands for hypersonic glide vehicle, which means these missiles can reach maneuverable speeds of between Mach 5 and Mach 10 once they’re in their reentry phase. It also means they can extend the range of the DF-17 anywhere between thirty-five and fifty percent.”

  Gary ran his fingers through his hair in consternation. “Kurt, if they deployed this missile against a carrier, we’d be hard-pressed to intercept them. They can maneuver out of the way of our ABMs. Heck, they could lob dozens of these bad boys at Eglin Air Force Base and take out our largest fighter base in range of supporting operations over Cuba. These damn things are first-strike weapons, Kurt.”

  No one said anything for a moment. Finally, General Kurt Stavridis replied, “Here’s the plan, Gary. Identify a company or battalion of ODAs we can use to go after these assets. I will talk with the Pentagon and make sure we have round-the-clock coverage of where they’re deploying these assets in Cuba. As we locate them, inform the SOF team of that location. I’ll talk with the Agency to figure out if their sources in Cuba can facilitate the insertion of Special Forces teams to specifically go after these assets when and if the order is finally given.

  “In the meantime, let’s get the ball rolling with establishing this blockade in the Pacific and here in the Caribbean. I want to know what assets our NATO allies are sending our way as well. Oh, and before either of us forget, begin deploying both Patriot and THAAD missile batteries around our military bases within range of these systems,” General Stavridis ordered.

  Gary finished writing a few notes and then headed out of his office to follow his orders. It was time to start preparing the country for a possible war with China.

  *******

  National Security Advisor’s Office

  White House

  Washington, D.C.

  The last forty-eight hours had been a blur. Wilson hadn’t been home in three days. His couch was his unofficial bed for the time being, and it was beckoning him even now.

  “Boss, your wife is on the line. Should I tell her you’ll call her back?” asked Mike, his assistant.

  Wilson looked up, a blank look on his face. “No, I’ll take it. I should have already called her.”

  Reaching for the phone, he heard the soothing sound of his wife’s voice on the other end. Her voice sounded like serenity in what had become a swirling sea of chaos all around him. She asked if he was coming home tonight or when he thought he might be home. Wilson knew he needed to pry himself away from the job, to get a good night’s sleep if nothing else. There was so much to do and not enough time to do it all.

  “I don’t know, darling,” he said to her question.

  She then told him about an incident at school between his daughter and some classmates. Apparently, his daughter had gotten in a fight. The principal had called a meeting for the following day at nine a.m. to discuss the incident.

  “Honey, I can’t make the meeting. There’s too much going on,” he said.

  She was obviously upset by that response. “Blain, our daughter could end up getting kicked out of school if you don’t come. You need to be there. This isn’t one of those times when it’s OK to phone it in.”

  Wilson looked at the clock on the wall. It was already eight forty-two p.m. He relented.

  “I’ll have a car take me home. I’ll see you in thirty minutes.” He turned to his aide. “Mike, can you have the car pull around and take me home? My daughter got in some trouble at school today. I’m apparently required to see the principal tomorrow to sort it out.”

  “Sure thing, boss. Just make sure you’re back here for that eleven o’clock meeting in the Situation Room. The Chief of Naval Operations will be discussing the blockade,” Mike reminded him.

  *******

  Forty minutes later, Wilson arrived at his home in Georgetown. The place was beautiful, but it wasn’t his choice or desire to live in the district. Wilson preferred to live across the Potomac in McClean or Arlington rather than Georgetown, but his wife had insisted. W
hen she’d been offered a teaching position at the university, she’d wanted to live nearby and not have to fight the traffic. Wilson knew some hills weren’t worth dying on, and this was one of them.

  “There you are, stranger. I was beginning to wonder what happened to you,” his wife, Cindy, said as she greeted him with a bear hug and a kiss.

  “Sorry; it’s been crazy at work as you can imagine,” Wilson justified.

  “Yeah, tell me about it. I saw you on TV a few times. You looked tired,” Cindy said with concern.

  Wilson gave a weak smile as he dropped his briefcase and kicked off his shoes. He made his way over to his La-Z-Boy rocker and fell into it.

  “Cindy, tell me about Molly. What happened?” Wilson asked.

  Sitting across from him on the sofa, Cindy said, “Apparently, a couple of girls said the President was a war criminal for releasing the virus on the world. They said you were a war criminal for working for him. Molly said a few choice words to them and then the girls got into a scuffle before it was broken up. No one really got hurt, aside from their feelings. The principal wants to talk with us in the morning. That’s all I was told.”

  Grunting at the synopsis, Wilson wondered if it might not be better to pull his kids from school for the next couple of weeks or maybe the rest of the semester. Tensions were running high across the country. Some folks believed what the Chinese had put out; others were simply confused and didn’t know who to believe.

  “Are the kids asleep?”

  Cindy nodded. “Blain, what’s really going on? Are we headed to war like the talking heads are saying?”

  Sitting in his chair, he contemplated how much he should tell his wife. “It looks that way. We’ll know a lot more in the coming days and weeks.”

  Cindy moved her hand to her mouth. She was scared. She grabbed for a pillow and held it tight against her body. “Is there any way to avoid war?”

  Shrugging, Wilson replied, “I don’t think they want to avoid a war. It’s like they’ve already figured out this is the most opportune time to defeat us. I hate to say it, but I think they’re right.”

  Cindy then stood up, walked over to him and grabbed his hand. “Come with me. It’s time for bed. I want to make up for some lost time. God knows when I may see you again after today.”

  *******

  Situation Room

  White House

  General Anita Barrett, the commander for US Northern Command and NORAD, spoke from her facility in Colorado. “What concerns me most is the discovery of the Dongfeng-17 missiles. These medium-range ballistic missiles have a range of eleven hundred to sixteen hundred miles with a two-thousand-pound warhead. They can effectively hit any military base or city all the way up to New York City, all the way out to Chicago and even my facility at Peterson Air Force Base. Before this blockade goes into effect, we need to have a plan in place to counter this weapon, should it be used against us, and have a response ready to execute should they use them.”

  President Alton turned to Peter Morris, his Secretary of Defense. “Pete, this is your lane. How do we best defend against these missiles should they be used against the homeland?”

  Pete shifted uncomfortably in his chair for a moment before he answered, “I think we need to consider deploying our Patriot and THAAD missile systems around key strategic installations. We can develop a layered plan for how to deploy them. Should they be needed, they’ll be in the right positions to intercept the enemy missiles. I recommend we also put a couple squadrons of F-15Es on strip alert down on our southern bases. If the Chinese launch these missiles, then in addition to the Patriots and THAADs, the Eagles can fly up and launch their own air-to-air missile interceptors. DARPA’s made a few modifications to some of our existing inventory to handle this kind of threat.”

  “OK, make it happen. What else should we be doing in preparation? Anyone?” asked the President as he surveyed the room.

  The Chief of Naval Operations commented, “We have a carrier strike group forming up to head down to the Caribbean. I recommend we chop some ships from that group to take up a position in the Gulf. We can place a couple of Burkes and a Tico cruiser equipped with SM-3s. If the PRC fires those ballistic missiles, then the SM-3s will be our best bet at knocking them down.”

  “I like it. Dispatch the orders, Admiral. Anything else?” the President asked one more time.

  Wilson felt this would be a good time to say something. “Sir, if I may, I think there’s something we’re still not considering.”

  Alton turned to look at his National Security Advisor. “OK, Blain. What are we missing?”

  “Sir, I think we’re still trying to operate under the assumption that we can find a diplomatic solution to this problem. What I believe we’re forgetting is everything that’s happening is happening because Project Ten has already war-gamed it. Their super-AI has concluded that a war against America and the West can be won, but only if a series of circumstances to weaken us happen first.”

  Secretary of State Riley Edison pounced on that statement before Wilson could go any further. “Are you saying there’s no further point to talking with the Chinese? That our negotiations are a waste of time at this point?”

  Wilson countered, “I’m not saying we shouldn’t continue to hope calmer heads prevail. What I’m saying is, the PLA spent a very long time developing Jade Dragon and DragonLink to give them the competitive edge they need to defeat us. I don’t see the Chinese leadership stepping back from the brink if they already believe they will win. Why would they? If their super-AI is telling them to perform x, y, and z and then they’ll have a ninety-two percent chance of defeating the West, why would they not move forward with their war?”

  No one said anything for a moment as they contemplated what he said. Finally, Peter Morris, the Secretary of Defense, spoke. “Mr. President, I don’t want to believe that Mr. Wilson might be right. As a matter of fact, I want to believe what he just said was BS. But honestly, if what we know about Jade Dragon is real, and this Project Ten super-AI is as advanced as we’ve been told, then I believe Mr. Wilson is spot-on. The Chinese will move forward with attacking us. If we provided you with a ninety-two percent chance of success in launching a first strike against one of our adversaries, I suspect you would move forward as well. Putting ourselves in their shoes, it’s clear they won’t budge on their position.”

  “If that’s true, Pete, then when do you believe they’ll attack us? How much time do you believe we have before they hit us?” asked the President, a bit of fear and concern in his voice.

  “I think they’ll wait until after the election. We’re only eight days away,” Albert Abney, the President’s Chief of Staff, said aloud.

  A couple of people turned to look at him in surprise. Vice President Vickie Jackson looked like she was ready to punch someone—this could cost her the chance to become president.

  Admiral Roy Thiel, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, cut in. “No, I don’t think they care about the election. I think they’ll wait until their carrier task force in the South China Sea links up with their convoy in the Philippine Sea. I read an NSA intercept this morning indicating this naval force is heading to Guam. I believe Mr. Wilson and our allied intelligence is correct about Project Ten. Their super-AI has determined when, where, and how best to attack the West to remove us as a threat to their plans. We need to position our forces for war, and now.”

  There was a moment of silence as no one knew what to say. They had all hoped that diplomacy could still work, that maybe this nightmare AI supercomputer wasn’t real, and war could still be avoided.

  It had been four days since the Chinese had unleashed their deepfake disinformation campaign on the world. Their outright manipulation of the facts about the pandemic, the dumping of US Treasury notes, the liquidation of stocks, and then the shuttering of Chinese-owned businesses inside the US to further exacerbate the economic collapse of America and the West—it was all too much to be a coincidence, and too much for one per
son or think tank to be responsible for. This was the work of a complex artificial intelligence program.

  President Alton then asked, “If this is your honest assessment, Admiral, then should we launch a preemptive attack? Should we shift forces around to meet the enemy head-on?”

  “I think we should relocate the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale and the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess to some of our bases in the Dakotas. If the Chinese do launch a preemptive attack on us, our bombers will be out of harm’s way,” Admiral Thiel recommended.

  “What about Guam? You said this Chinese task force appears to be heading toward the island. Do we have sufficient forces on the island to hold it, should it come under a sustained attack or invasion?” asked the President.

  “There are twelve thousand service members stationed on Guam under the new unified command. There are also four Los Angeles fast-attack submarines stationed on the island,” Admiral Thiel offered. “I issued an order to have them all put to sea to take up station around the island. There are five thousand Marines stationed on the island along with seven thousand total dependents. We don’t have a lot of assets we can rapidly deploy there, but we could move another battalion of Marines from Japan to Guam while we work on evacuating the dependents.”

  President Alton sighed as he rubbed his temples. “Admiral, maybe you already told me this and I forgot. How long will it take for the Chinese fleet to be in range to attack Guam, if that is in fact their intended target? Also, why Guam? Why not bypass it and go for something juicier like Hawaii, or send that task force to the Caribbean?”

  “The Chinese fleet is five days from Guam,” the admiral explained. “If they chose to head in the direction of Hawaii, then it’s somewhere around nine days away. If they head toward Panama, then thirteen days. In either case, we’re less than two weeks away from the first shots being fired. As to why they might take Guam first, that’s simple. Guam represents our furthermost air and naval base beyond Hawaii. If the PLA is able to take Guam from us and then fortify it, they’d have an effective shield to block us from pursuing any naval activities in the South China Sea. It’d also make it difficult to carry out military operations against them as we wouldn’t have any facilities nearby to refuel or rearm.”

 

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