More than 70 % of the population was on board with being a US territory, and enjoyed the benefits of being a part of America. While the conflict was winding down, the military continued to draw down forces and shift them to the other conflicts. The Private Military Corporations (PMCs) continued to stay, and provided security for the DOJ, DHS, FBI, and other government agencies as they continued to expand their footprints.
The cartels had been nearly eradicated during this time period. The few Special Forces units still operating in Mexico were hunting them down relentlessly; plus, the DOJ and DHS had placed a huge bounty on their heads. It was becoming hard for them to continue to hide, let alone run their operations. When it came to dealing with the cartels, there were no rules being followed. Unlike the old Mexican government that was powerless against the cartels (or in some cases colluding with them), the Americans hunted them down relentlessly.
The war in the Middle East had gone from bad to suddenly great. The Beirut invasion had proved to be a resounding success, similar to MacArthur’s landing of troops at Inchon during the Korean War. The Israelis had broken through the IR forces near Amman and swung around behind the Chinese army to the south. They cornered the Chinese against the Red Sea, and now had them completely surrounded. The Israeli artillery was giving the Chinese the fight of their lives, pounding them relentlessly 24/7. General Gardner believed the Chinese would be forced to surrender within the next day or two as they had nowhere to go and not nearly enough strength left to fight their way out of their position.
The Russians had initially chosen to keep their army in Israel and drive again towards Tel Aviv, relying on their forces in Turkey to engage the Americans in Lebanon. They broke through the American and Israeli lines once again, and came within eight miles of Tel Aviv, but ran out of steam and supplies. Unfortunately for them, while the main army was attacking Tel Aviv, General Lodz (the Russian commander) was seriously injured in an artillery attack. The extent of his injuries was such that he had to be flown back to Russia for medical treatment. The U.S. Navy and Air Force pummeled the army in Lebanon with massive amounts of air attacks, effectively stopping the Russian relief army group that had been attacking from Turkey.
Prior to the MiG40s being rebased to Turkey, they had scored over 253 fighter drone kills and 127 piloted aircraft kills, all while losing only 23 of their own number. Despite the enormous loss in aircraft by the Allies, they were able to destroy much of the Russian armored forces, and prevented their relief army from breaking through the American defensive lines. The Russians and their supply lines continued to stay cutoff. General Gardner was quick to seize on the tactical defeat of the Russians and absence of General Lodz, and moved to encircle the remaining Russian army.
Before the Law Takes a Break
President Stein was walking towards the Situation Room with Monty, talking about the recent success in the Middle East and concerned with the situation developing in Asia. As the President sat down, the meeting began quickly. General Branson kicked things off.
“Mr. President, I would like to start the briefing by going over the situation in the Middle East first, then transition to Europe and end with Asia.”
The President smiled and nodded towards General Branson for him to continue.
“The Israelis have the Chinese army surrounded, although intelligence shows another large Chinese naval force approaching the port of Kuwait. It would appear they are going to offload another large army group, but they will not be able to form quickly enough to help their comrades. The IDF Commander has asked if we may be able to help them by taking possession and control of the Chinese prisoners once they have surrendered,” General Branson said as he looked to the President for guidance.
Henry looked up from his notes and said, “Convey to the Israelis that we will take possession of the prisoners, but we request that they provide at least half of the security force needed to guard them. We will look to relocate the prisoners back to the US until the end of the war. I would like Attorney General Roberts to identify suitable locations for us to intern them.”
AG Roberts wrote a couple of quick notes before looking up and asking, “Am I to assume I can use them to help build these facilities as well?”
“Yes, use them as you see fit; let’s put them to work on the various projects that need to be done. Perhaps we should use them to help with the salvage and cleanup operations in New York and Baltimore,” the President directed.
“Yes, Mr. President. My office will work with the rest of the NSC team to find the best use for them,” the AG said finishing a few notes.
General Branson resumed his brief. “In the north, the Russians are caught between a rock and a hard place. Their supply lines have been cut off, along with the fastest routes of retreat. They have also pulled their MiG40s back to bases in Turkey, so they are not able to smother our aircraft and the frontlines like they had previously done. Our fighter bombers are now going after any and all fuel tankers we can find to further limit their options.”
General Gardner, who was attending the briefing via the holograph, interjected, “Mr. President, I am moving the last of my reserves to finish encircling their army. Once we have them surrounded, it will then be a matter of tightening the noose and forcing them to surrender. I firmly believe when the Russians capitulate, the IR is going to collapse quickly. We will finally be able to start to apply more direct pressure to them. The issue we are running into right now (and it is starting to become a serious one) is munitions. We are running out of artillery rounds and heavy machine gun ammunition.”
“Another point of order I need to address is equipment — not for my army group but for the IDF. Reinforcements are pouring into Israel from all over the world; their numbers are really starting to swell. As they finish additional IDF training, they are being filtered into the rest of the line units; however, they do not have the gear that they need. Is there any additional armor, artillery and rifles we can equip them with?” asked General Gardner, looking for support.
Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, spoke up, “We are working on the munition problem right now. We have twelve aircraft that should be arriving from Europe with ordinance, and about ten freighters a couple of days later. That’s the best we can do. To address your equipment problem, we are going through the various vehicle and aircraft boneyards, refurbishing everything and getting them combat ready. Most of the equipment is dated, but it will still work, and it will still kill well enough. As for rifles, we are cranking out M5 AIRs and HUDs at a high rate, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Gardner’s face softened a bit, knowing that his needs were going to be met. “Any equipment we can get them, they will use. Thank you for the emergency resupply of artillery rounds.”
General Branson regained the President’s attention. “I’d like to move on to Europe. As of right now, we have the Russians stopped at the German border and in Austria. They have taken the Czech Republic and the entire Balkan region, with the exception of most of Albania and Greece. It was a real slaughter though in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Romania; their armies virtually collapsed. The Russians were not taking a lot of prisoners. We may have to fall back further into Germany if the EU is not able to get additional reinforcements to the frontlines.”
The President was curious what the issue was, since the fighting was taking place on the continent and not having to move troops nearly as far as the US was having to. “What is the hold up? Why is it taking them so long to get troops to the frontlines?” asked the President.