Strike Force

“Which is what?” Gardner interjected. “A military junta led by Buzhazi, who at one time was one of the biggest Islamist enforcers of them all? Another monarchy that lavishes itself with palaces and gold while repressing their people?”

“Neither, Mr. Secretary,” Patrick said. “As flawed as we believe it is, Iran is a democracy, and an overwhelming majority of the people want a democracy. Frankly, I don’t think it matters if the people rally behind a general that uses his power to destroy the Pasdaran and strip the theocrats from their grip on the government, or a historical monarchy that brought that country into the twentieth century and made it an important Western ally. What we care about is that Iran becomes a stable, open, representative society, able to defend itself and its government against hostile and repressive forces.” He looked at each one of the presidential advisers, then said, “Or we can just pull our guys out, then sit back and simply watch what happens next.”

Most of the advisers and Cabinet officials shook their heads at Patrick’s speech-making but fell silent and looked at the President, not offering any more arguments. The President looked at them knowingly. He knew that McLanahan’s arguments made sense to them — they were just miffed that McLanahan was making them.

Secretary of State Carson’s computer terminal beeped, and she scrolled through the messages. “Response from the Iranian government through the Swiss embassy, sir,” she said as she read. “Looks like it might be going out over the news wires and Middle East news outlets soon too.”

The President could see the consternation growing on her face. “What did they say, Mary?”

“They say, ‘The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have captured a spy that killed several of their embassy staff just outside Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan, who were out on cooperative security maneuver exercises with their Turkmeni counterparts,” Carson read. “‘The Americans have claimed responsibility for the attacks, making President Martindale completely and personally liable for the murders. The captured spy and other evidence recovered at the scene of the murders is being held and analyzed for the upcoming trial.”

“Bastards,” the President muttered.

“The message further states, ‘The Iranian government believes that the American military spy was assisting anti-Iranian terrorist and insurgent forces to illegally infiltrate into Iran, recruit and train anti-government rebel forces, attack Iranian military, civilian, and government targets, work with the insurgents to disrupt or destroy the democratically elected government, and attack Muslim holy sites and supply centers that help the poor and underprivileged, such as what occurred in Qom and Arān,’” Carson went on. “‘The Iranian government condemns this irrational and unprovoked hostile action, and it calls upon the peaceful law-abiding nations of the world to join the Islamic Republic in indicting the United States and President Martindale for committing these atrocious acts.

“‘If the United States continues its illegal covert war, sends military forces within striking range of Iran, sends spy planes, spacecraft, space weapons, military space platforms, and satellites over our territory to pick targets to strike, or continues to foment and support terrorist and separatist actions, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice but to retaliate massively and with all means available at a time and place of our choosing against the United States and all of its allies, supporters, client states, and interests around the world.’ There is a bunch of religious citations and the usual call for all devout and loyal Muslims to holy war against America, Israel, and anyone aligned with us. End of message.”

“Carl, get General Lewars in here and let’s draft up a statement for immediate release to the press,” the President said. Chief of staff Minden was already on the phone to the rest of his people. “Let’s schedule a meeting with the leadership and we’ll get them briefed up too. Mary and I will field the calls from overseas that I expect will start coming in…”

The computer on the President’s desk beeped, and he glanced at the display. “First up, President Zevitin of Russia,” he said resignedly. Since the American Holocaust, President Martindale had a policy of always taking calls that came directly from a handful of world leaders, and President Leonid Zevitin of Russia was one of them. Martindale got along with Zevitin and usually had productive and open talks with him, but he was dreading this call.