Tom Clancy's op-center_ acts of war - Tom Clancy [33]
Hood sat back. Rodgers's career as a soldier included two tours of Vietnam, command of a mechanized brigade in the Persian Gulf, and leading a covert Striker operation into North Korea. Rodgers wasn't going to run from a terrorist attack on a dam.
"You're right about that," Hood admitted. "Mike will want to stay. But Mike isn't the one who has make that decision. We've also got Mary Rose, Phil, and Lowell in the saddle and they're all civilians. I just wish we knew whether the attack was an isolated event or the first salvo of something larger."
"Obviously, we'll know more when we find out who's responsible," McCaskey said.
"Well give me something to chew on," Hood said. "Who do you think was behind this?"
"I've spoken with the CIA and with the Turkish Special Forces, and also with the Mossad in Israel," McCaskey said. "They're all saying it's either Syrians or Muslim fundamentalists within Turkey. There's a strong argument for both. The Muslim Fundamentalists desperately want to weaken Turkey's ties with Israel and the West. By attacking the infrastructure, they place a burden on the populace and turn them against the government."
"If that's the case," Hood said, "we can expect more attacks."
"Right," McCaskey replied.
"Yeah, but I'm not going for that one," Herbert said. "The fundamentalists are already pretty damn strong in Turkey. Why would they try to take by force what they can conceivably win on the next ballot?"
"Because they're impatient," McCaskey pointed out. "Iran is paying a lot of their bills and Tehran wants to see results."
"Iran has already put Turkey in the 'win' column," Herbert replied. "It's just a matter of time. Their big playground now is Bosnia. They were outfitting the Bosnians with arms and advisors during the Balkan war. Not only are those advisors still there, they're multiplying like guppies. That's how the fundamentalists plan on getting into the heartland of Europe. As far as Turkey goes, Iran's going to let the political situation move at its own pace."
"Not if Turkey continues to rely more and more on Israeli military assets and on financial aid and intelligence from the United States," McCaskey said. "Iran doesn't want another U.S. stronghold in their backyard."
"What about the Syrians?" Hood interjected. McCaskey and Herbert always went at each other like this, passionately but respectfully. Darrell Consensus and Bob Gut Instinct, psychologist Liz Gordon had once called them. That was why Hood had asked McCaskey to pop in when Herbert phoned that he had news about the attack. Between the two of them, Hood always ended up with a concise but comprehensive overview of a situation--though it was necessary to keep them from turning it into a political science debate.
"With the Syrians we have two possibilities," McCaskey said. "The terrorists could be Syrian extremists who are sold on the idea of the Middle East becoming Greater Syria--"
"Adding it to their collection, like Lebanon," Herbert said bitterly.
Hood nodded. It was the terrorist bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 that had cost the intelligence officer his wife and the use of his legs.
"Correct," said McCaskey. "Or what seems more likely is that the dam-busters are Syrian Kurds."
"They're Kurds, all right," Herbert said confidently. "Syrian extremists don't do anything without the approval of the military, and the military takes its marching orders from the Syrian President himself. If the Syrian government wanted to spark hostilities with Turkey, they wouldn't do it this way."
"What would they do?" Hood asked.
"They'd do what aggressor nations always do," Herbert said. "They'd hold war games on the border, massing troops there and provoking an incident to draw the Turks over. The Syrians would never set foot in Turkey. As we used to say in the military, they like receiving. It goes back to 1967 when Israeli tanks rolled in on the third day of the Six-Day War. Defending their homeland makes Syrians look and feel like freedom fighters instead of like aggressors. That helps to rally other