Executive Intent

By twilight, three thousand People’s Liberation Army troops aboard the six cargo ships had surrounded and reinforced defensive positions at Mogadishu Airport and the New Port districts, and scouts had directed intense naval bombardment of the Old Port district designed to suppress any counterattack attempts. Chinese hunter-killer squads began to fan out into the outskirts of the city north and west of the airport, armed with snipers, wire-guided antivehicle missiles, security troops with automatic rifles, and night-vision equipment. Any locals who congregated in any fashion and for any reason were ruthlessly attacked, even if the purpose was to collect the dead or injured. The area within a mile of the airport boundary became an instant shoot-to-kill zone, and no buildings stood within two miles of the airport.

That evening, several large transport planes began arriving, one every hour on a varying time schedule, taking extreme defensive measures to avoid being targeted by Somali rocket-propelled grenades or shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. Each plane carried more troops and supplies, some carrying armored vehicles or artillery pieces. The arrivals were timed with more naval artillery barrages to keep Somali heads down until right before the transports arrived on final approach, when they were the most vulnerable.

By daybreak of the second day of the invasion, over four thousand Chinese soldiers were on the ground at Mogadishu Airport.

SIX

No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.

– WILLA CATHER, “ALEXANDER’S BRIDGE”

THE WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM, WASHINGTON, D.C.

THAT SAME TIME

Vice President Kenneth Phoenix, White House Chief of Staff Walter Kordus, and National Security Adviser Conrad Carlyle entered the Situation Room quickly and took seats. Phoenix waved at the other members of the National Security Council in the room, who had been standing anticipating the president’s arrival. “Walter finally convinced the president to get some rest,” Phoenix said. “He’s been watching the news coverage of the Chinese invasion on TV almost continuously, and he’s beat. He’s going to address the American people at seven-ten this morning.” The other officials and military officers shuffled to their seats, most reaching for coffee or energy drinks, all wishing they could get some rest as well. “Let’s do it, Walter.”

“Yes, Mr. Vice President,” Kordus said. He took a sip of coffee, then went on: “This will be our last update until the full staff update at six forty-five A.M., so we can all get at least a few hours’ rest as long as your deputies are fully briefed and in place. Who’s got the latest?”

“Right here, Walter, Mr. Vice President,” Secretary of Defense Miller Turner said. “In a nutshell, sir, we’re seeing a historic, tactically well-orchestrated, and a strategically globe-altering event: the first deployment of Chinese troops across its borders in large numbers since the Korean War, and one of the largest deployments of Chinese air and naval forces in the country’s long history. What we’re seeing, ladies and gentlemen, is the world’s largest standing army from the world’s most populous country doing what the world has feared for two millennia: breaking out of its borders and massing troops elsewhere on the planet.

“To summarize: The People’s Republic of China bombarded and then invaded the main airport and the area known as New Port in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa. The invasion began with air-and sea-launched cruise-missile attacks, followed by unguided gravity-bomb attacks from Chinese H-6 jet bombers and naval gun bombardment from Chinese warships that were part of the antipiracy task force. The bombardment was followed by a land invasion of Chinese marines who came ashore from the naval warships, and then followed by Chinese army regulars who came ashore aboard container vessels initially thought to be humanitarian relief supplies bound for Tanzania. The attacks were specifically planned and executed for maximum destruction and body count.”

“Do we know where those bombers came from?” Phoenix asked. “Did they fly all the way from China?”

“We don’t yet know, sir,” Turner replied. He checked his notes, then said, “The Chinese H-6 is China ’s only long-range bomber. They have only a hundred twenty of them. Unrefueled, they have a range of only one thousand miles. About sixty were updated with aerial refueling probes, and approximately thirty were converted to aerial refueling tankers, so we’re assuming that half of all their airrefuelable bombers and air-refueling tankers were used in this raid. If they are, they could have come all the way from mainland China.”