Strike Force

“Not a whole lot, sir,” the national security adviser said, rattling off the information off the top of his head as presented to him in his daily status briefings. After the devastating Russian attacks that destroyed almost all of America’s long-range land-based strike capability, the most common question from the President’s lips whenever a crisis was brewing was “Where are the carriers?” “There is one aircraft carrier battle group in the Persian Gulf now, but it’s scheduled to rotate out with another group in two days.”

“That’ll have to be delayed for now.”

“Yes, sir. The second carrier from Seventh Fleet is in the Indian Ocean, within two days’ steaming time to Iran, and another carrier group is a few more days behind in the South China Sea — with just ten carrier battle groups in the fleet now, we’re stretched thin. Fifth Fleet is reporting fully operational, but they are heavily committed to operations in Iraq already.” Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, was the U.S. Navy’s permanent presence in the Persian Gulf, but it normally had no aircraft carriers assigned to it except in wartime.

“So the chances of sending a Marine Expeditionary Unit to Iran to help Buzhazi defend himself and rally the people to support his coup…?”

“Dropping two thousand Marines into central Iran, with their entire military alerted? Slim to no chance, sir,” Sparks said. “General Glenbrook would have to give us the exact figures, but I would guess it would take several days of planning and a week minimum to mobilize those kinds of forces. An assault from the Persian Gulf or Gulf of Oman would be out of the question — that’s the first place they’d be watching for such a move — so we’d try a feint from that direction and bring the main force in overland from Turkey, Turkmenistan, or Afghanistan. That would take even longer to set up.”

“But all of this is assuming we want to support a military coup in Iran,” Minden said. “As I recall, Buzhazi was one of the most aggressive military leaders ever in Iran. As far as we know, he was the architect of Iran’s nuclear program — he certainly made it clear he would use the few nuclear weapons we know were in his control. We need a lot more information before we’d ever contemplate supporting him — it would be akin to deciding whether or not to support a Saddam Hussein or Pervez Musharraf all over again.”

“This is an opportunity we shouldn’t pass up, sir,” McLanahan said to the President. “Buzhazi has taken a small force of volunteers and captured one of Shi’ite Islam’s most holy sites, apparently along with several high-ranking members of Iran’s clerical government. There’s only one reason he’s taken a chance to track me down and call me in the middle of this operation, and that’s because he knows he’s teetering on the brink of success or failure. If he fails, the clerical government will purge the entire country of any other opposition and completely crush them. Iran will be driven even deeper into fundamentalist isolation for another generation…”

“And if he wins, we could be looking at another military dictator in the heart of the Middle East, astride one of the world’s most important shipping routes, with trillions in petrodollars — and nuclear weapons — at his disposal,” Minden said.

“We don’t know that, Carl,” the Vice President said, “but I agree with the former: if the clerical government survives, they’ll squash any group that even hints at opposing the government. We support a dozen Iranian opposition movements: the National Council of Resistance, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, the National Liberation Army, a number of student anti-theocracy groups, and even surviving family members of the deposed monarchy. The Pasdaran will fan out all around the globe to track down any groups that might gain inspiration for another coup from Buzhazi.”

The Oval Office fell silent. The President was stone-faced, masking his own doubt and indecision; after a few moments he motioned back to the speakerphone. Patrick hit the button: “General Buzhazi, are you still there?” Patrick asked.

They could hear a man’s voice speaking in the background; then the young English-speaking theology student said, “The general wants to know who else is listening to this conversation.”

“Tell the general it’s none of his damned business,” Patrick snapped. “Ask the general what he wants of me.”

After a slight pause: “He says you have said it yourself, sir.”

“I want the general to say it, in his own words,” Patrick said. “You don’t have to translate, Mr. Ardakani — we’ll do it ourselves.”