2030_ The Real Story of What Happens to America - Albert Brooks [25]
Israel waited through 2011 as the United States talked to Iran and tried to present a face of progress, but Israeli spies knew the truth. Weapons were being constructed at the rate of one a month starting in January 2012. With help from double agents inside Iran and secret help from Egypt and Jordan—two Arab countries more scared of Iran than Israel, if that was possible—a massive strike was undertaken to set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by at least a decade. It unleashed a conventional war that went on for almost six months, with tens of thousands of casualties and Arab nations fighting one another. The United States supplied weapons but refused to officially enter the conflict.
Fighting was brought to an uneasy truce toward the end of 2012, and for the foreseeable future Iran, other than by buying one off the black market, was not going to have its weapon. The odd thing was that as soon as fighting ceased, Israel went back to the same strained relationship it had had with Jordan and Egypt. They were there for each other in times of absolute crisis, but barring that, Jews were Jews and Arabs were Arabs, and that was not going to change.
Pakistan and India were not as lucky. By 2013 there was complete chaos in Pakistan. The Taliban, fighting the United States and NATO in Afghanistan, in a war that was making Vietnam look like a quickie, made their move to take over Pakistan once and for all. Slowly, each year, they gained the support of more of the people. Pakistan, unlike India, never distributed its wealth, and as the population got poorer and less educated, the Taliban took over more hearts and minds. The news reports that the Taliban had been driven out were true. Driven out of one place, but welcomed into another. Not dead and not gone. And when they’d become quiet for a few years, people made the big mistake of thinking the worst was over. But all they had done was go back into the population and fester. They cemented themselves with the millions of impoverished people and the thousands of soldiers who wanted a more religious state.
The Taliban made their move on Christmas Eve 2013, a date that meant nothing to them, almost as if to say to the Christian world, “Merry Christmas, you fuckers.” It was quick, coordinated beyond anyone’s wildest imagination, and because of the help they had within the army, relatively bloodless. By New Year’s Day 2014, Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was under Taliban control. The remaining government basically surrendered without a fight. The rest of the world watched in horror as Sharia law was imposed on an entire nation. The Taliban immediately organized military parades, as they wanted Pakistan and the world to see thousands of people cheering for them in the streets. An Al-Qaeda bomb—actually, seventy of them—was finally a reality.
The United States went on highest alert, and war plans were discussed in case Pakistan had to be attacked before any of these weapons could be fired. But it was India that was truly petrified. Yes, the Taliban hated the U.S., but they hated India more. And, like all Pakistanis, they wanted the land they believed was rightfully theirs.
It only took two months in power before the first clash came in Kashmir. India noticed immediately that the Pakistani soldiers fought with a new intensity. Accompanying the fighting were strong warnings and threats coming from the Taliban government: “Give us this land, or else.” The last thing India wanted to do was now its only option.
Secret meetings were held with the United States, Germany, France, China, Japan, Russia, and the UK. None of these countries liked the new Pakistan, and only China and Russia, among the major powers, thought they could do business with its new government.
India said, and the intelligence backed them up, that it was going to be attacked with nuclear weapons and it had to strike first. The United States thought it was the right thing to do. China and Japan thought India should give it more time. Germany and France, with their large Muslim populations,