Lethal Trajectories - Michael Conley [142]
Clayton glanced around the table and was relieved to see heads nodding in agreement. Looking back down at his notes, he continued.
“With respect to our Safe Harbors strategy, I’ll frame the four quadrants in metaphoric terms, using medical treatment and triage processes to describe the actions required. For instance, the Saudi oil crisis is our most life-threatening condition and requires emergency-room care. The long-term energy crisis is an acute condition requiring immediate and sustained efforts—hospitalization—to reverse. The climate-change and economic challenges are deadly chronic diseases requiring significant doses of medicine and lifestyle changes. And last, the behavioral quadrant means getting honest with ourselves and realigning our expectations with the new paradigms and realities we’ll face.”
“How will you explain this in policy terms, Mr. President?’ asked Tony Mullen.
“I’ll frame this as our strategic response to the perfect storm. I’ll tell them it’s a work in progress and that we’ll fill in the pieces as we work our way through it. I want them to feel—deep in their gut—the urgency of the challenges and the necessity to meet them immediately and forcefully. I’ll remind them we must coordinate our efforts so that in fixing one part of the quadrant we don’t increase problems in the other quadrants. As the docs say, do no harm.”
“What will you say, Mr. President, in reference to our foreign policy and expectations we’ll have of our allies?” asked Secretary of State Cartright.
“Thanks, Elizabeth. I’ll be highlighting a few things: first, that America and its allies will oppose the Saudi oil embargo with all means available. I’ll also reinforce our position that an attack on Israel will be considered an attack on the United States. Hopefully, I’ll be able to emphasize our new alliance with China and what it will mean with respect to the Saudi crisis and our ability to work through global rationing and longer-term economic and climate-change challenges.
“I’ll reiterate America’s commitment and willingness to ‘pay any price and bear any burden,’ to quote JFK, to resolve the global challenges we face in cooperation with all nations of the world.”
“It’s an aggressive plan, Mr. President,” asked the skeptical Secretary of Defense, Thurmond Thompson. “How will you get Congress to go along with it?”
“You’re right, Thurmond, it is an aggressive plan. I’ll work with Congress to the extent possible, but I won’t hesitate to invoke the wartime and emergency powers of the presidency to implement the hard decisions. We can’t let this get picked to pieces; we need to push it through as a package.”
Sensing Thompson’s concern, Clayton continued.
“I know it sounds harsh, but we’re on the receiving end of problems that have festered and been passed on from one administration to the next for decades. It’s time to pay the piper; there’s simply nowhere else to go. It’s not just about Saudi Arabia and energy. It’s also about climate-change and our debt-laden economy and entitlement programs we can no longer afford—any one of these problems could bury us. This may be our last real opportunity to get things back on track. That’s the message I want everyone to hear.
“There’s also a message of hope in all this that shouldn’t be forgotten. The very things it’ll take to transition to a new economy—like building new energy systems and infrastructures—will create broad new engines of economic growth. I see this as a way out for us. With our technological prowess, we can once again be exporters of new technologies and energy systems. There’s a brighter future for America, but it’ll take some unpleasant medicine to get there.”
For the next two hours, the council challenged and debated the president’s plan and approach. Clayton was encouraged to see that the strategic blueprint was coming together—albeit sketchily—as the considerable powers of the White House rallied to make Safe Harbors a reality. At the conclusion, the admiral summarized the highlights and dished out assignments.
As Clayton gathered