Executive orders - Tom Clancy [533]
IT TOOK AN hour for them to get in. Admiral Jackson had been sleeping in his office, but Secretary Bretano had gone home after a marathon session of reviewing deployments within the country. The White House dress code had been relaxed, they saw. The President, also red-eyed, was wearing doctor clothes.
Dan Murray and Ed Foley repeated their brief.
Jackson took it well: All right. Now we know what we're up against.
Bretano did not: This is an overt act of war.
But we're not the objective, the DCI told him. It's Saudi Arabia, and all the other Gulf states. It's the only thing that makes sense. He figures that if he takes over those states, we can't nuke him-it would turn off the oil for the whole world. The DCI almost had it right, but not quite.
And he has India and China in his pocket, Robby Jackson went on. They're just running interference, but it's good interference. Ike's in the wrong place. The Indians have their carriers blocking the Straits of Hormuz. We can't get the MPS ships in without air cover. Zap, he moved those three corps down. The Saudis'll fight, but they're outmanned. It's over in a week, maybe less. Not a bad operational concept, the J-3 concluded.
The bio-attack's pretty clever, too. I think they got more than they bargained for. Almost every base and unit we have is out of business at the moment, SecDef observed, catching up fast on the operational side.
Mr. President, when I was a boy in Mississippi, I remember the Klukkers used to say, when you see a mad dog, don't kill the poor thing-toss it in somebody's backyard. You know, some sheet-head actually did that to us once, 'cause my pap was real big on getting people registered to vote.
What did you do, Rob?
Pap blew it away with his Fox double, Admiral Jackson replied. And continued the mission. We have to move fast if we're going to move. Problem is, what with?
How long before the MPS ships get to Saudi?
Just under three days, but there's somebody in the way. CINCLANT'S cut orders for that surface group to scoot down the Suez, and they can be at the strait in time, but we gotta get those tank-carriers past the Indians first.
Those four boats are escorted by one cruiser, two 'cans, and two frigates, and if we lose them, nearest equipment re-supply's in Savannah, sir.
What do we have in storage in Saudi? Ben Goodley asked.
Enough for a heavy brigade. Same in Kuwait. The third brigade-set is afloat and standing in harm's way.
Kuwait's first in line, the President said. What can we get there?
If we're balls-to-the-wall, we can fly the 10th ACR out of Israel to mate up with the POMCUS site south of Kuwait City. That we can do in twenty-four hours. The Kuwaitis'll handle transport. They have a quiet understanding with Israel on that. We helped broker it, Robby said. The plan's called BUFFALO FORWARD.
Anybody think that's a bad idea? Jack asked.
One armored cavalry regiment-I don't think it's enough to deter them, sir, Goodley said.
The man's right, the J-3 agreed.
Ryan looked around the table. Knowing was one thing. Being able to act was something else. He could order a strategic nuclear attack on Iran. He had B-2A stealth bombers at Whiteman Air Force Base, and with the information he'd been given in the past two hours, getting CINC-STRIKE to validate the order under the two-man rule would not be a problem. The Spirits, as the B-2s were called, could be there in less than eighteen hours, and turn that nation into a smoking, poisoned ruin.
But he couldn't do that. Even if he had to, he probably couldn't. Though American Presidents had long been faced with the necessity of telling the world that, yes, we will launch our missiles and bombers if we have to, it was a duty Ryan never expected to carry out. Even this attack on his country, the use of weapons of mass destruction-to America the equivalent of nuclear arms-had been the decision of one man, and carried out by a relative handful. Could he flatten whole cities in response, kill the innocent as Daryaei had done, because the other