Goliath

Covah stops at the lanky African. “This is Abdul Kaigbo, a history teacher born in Sierra Leone. As he escorted his family home from school, rebels ambushed him. They took an axe to both his arms and left him for dead, then kidnapped his two children.”

Kaigbo looks at Gunnar. “You were in Uganda.”

“Yes.”

“You witnessed children fighting?”

Gunnar nods.

Rocky notices his hands are shaking.

Kaigbo sighs. “Sierra Leone is even worse. Eight of ten rebels are between the ages of seven and fourteen. An entire generation of Africans is ruined, and the proliferation of small arms among the population ensures the fighting will never end—”

“—unless something drastic is done,” Covah interjects, squeezing the African’s shoulder. “Abdul is right. While the West preoccupies itself with warships and major weapon systems, it is the easy access to small arms like machine guns, mortars, and rifles that have led to hundreds of ethnic, religious, and sectarian conflicts over the last twenty years. More than 5 million people have been massacred, yet the fighting goes on like an incurable disease. You pride yourself on being a compassionate people, Commander, yet the death of a half million Rwandan Tutsis carries no more impact in your daily lives that a shattered piece of china.”

Covah continues circling his crew. “Each man in this room has experienced his own similar tale of woe. From Thomas Chau, one of the Chinese students shot in Tiananmen Square, to Taur Araujo, a former guerrilla leader in East Timor.”

Covah motions to the two Arabs. “The Chalabi brothers, Jalal and Masud—Kurds whose only desire was to raise their children in peace—to live and let live. Saddam used their families and others like them as human guinea pigs to test his biological weapons.”

He places his hand on the Tibetan’s shoulder. “This is Sujan Trevedi, a Tibetan geshe—a teacher of Buddhist philosophy. For refusing to give up his beliefs, he spent seven years in a Chinese prison, where he was tortured almost daily.”

Sujan looks up at Rocky and Gunnar. “I know you are judging our actions harshly. What you will soon realize is that our cause unites all of humanity, regardless of race, religion, or nationality. The evil that infects our species must be stopped before it spreads any farther.”

“You’ve all suffered,” Rocky says, “and I’m sorry for that. But what does any of this have to do with stealing the Goliath? How will arming yourself with nuclear weapons stop any of these conflicts?”

Covah returns to his chair. “As the United States has proven, he who commands the biggest stick on the block rules the block. For this reason, more and more nations choose to carry big sticks. The first crisis we must address, therefore, is the proliferation and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. If something drastic is not done soon, there will be no humanity left to save.”

“Excuse me if I don’t buy into your paranoia,” Rocky retorts. “Exactly what threat of nuclear annihilation are you so concerned about?”

David shakes his head. “Pull your head out of the sand, Rocky. You and I spent our entire lives isolated in the safe bosom of the United States. Nuclear paranoia is running rampant across Asia and Europe. Our own insistence on pushing ahead with a Missile Defense Shield has poisoned relations across the globe, triggering another arms race.”

Covah nods in agreement. “Most wars begin because of one powerful man’s ego. While America dictates its policies to the rest of the world, changing global economies have altered the role of nuclear weapons in the twenty-first century. Third World governments actively seek these weapons, not as defensive deterrents, but as a viable means of manipulating geopolitical currents. It is far cheaper to buy a bomb than build an army, and it only takes the threat of one nuclear weapon to destabilize an entire region. Hiroshima’s bomb was a mere nineteen kilotons. Today’s weapons carry five-hundred kiloton payloads. North Korea’s ICBM, the Taepo Dong-3, could reach Los Angeles in thirty-four minutes, wiping out the entire city, and no Missile Defense Shield could stop it.”

“The threat’s not just from third world countries,” David says. “I’ve been to Russia. Corruption rules the day. Hard-line Communists are regaining power. While they could never hope to win a conventional war, there are generals in Russia who are pushing for a calculated first nuclear strike, before the United States completes its next round of tests on the Missile Defense Shield.”

“Shield or no shield, it’s still a nuclear stalemate, David,” Rocky argues. “They launch at us, we launch at them, and everyone dies. They’d never risk it.”