“General Muhammed, General Hamza wants to know what we are doing to stop the Americans from advancing and capturing Damascus. They are at the outskirts of the city already,” said General Ishmael Omar, General Muhammed’s Chief of Staff.
“Tell General Hamza I have ordered three divisions of armor to reinforce Damascus. I am also diverting additional attack aircraft and helicopters as well. That should satisfy him…doesn’t he realize the goal is to cut Israel in half? Damascus is not important. Capturing Jerusalem is.”
“I will inform him right away sir. Before I leave, we received word that our forces have captured Eilat and the American Israeli naval base there.”
“The IDF retreated to the Ovda IAF airbase. General Ibrahim also reported that he had finally secured Ir Ovot all the way to Dinoma on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. He has asked for permission to use his reserves as he makes a push to capture Be’er Sheva.”
“Tell him he has permission to use his reserves and prepare to fight the American Marines. Once he secures his objectives, he needs to be ready to move towards the Sinai and push those Americans into the Sea.”
IR forces were starting to break through the Jordan Valley defenses; they had poured over 600,000 soldiers into the valley to fight 12,500 American soldiers and roughly 60,000 Israelis. After 24 hours of hard fighting, they were now less than four miles from capturing Jerusalem. Then the news that the Americans had destroyed the Al Aqsa Mosque sent every soldier into a religious frenzy against the Americans. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims began to protest in virtually every major city in the world. Close to two million people from Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were moving towards Mecca to pray and to volunteer to fight against the Americans and destroy the spawns of Satan, the Jews.
Caliph Mohammed played this up in numerous broadcasts he televised from a hidden underground bunker. The IR Public Relations (PR) Ministry was broadcasting news reels of the destruction of the US 5th Fleet and the nuclear detonations destroying the Americans. Videos of the massive missile and artillery barrages pouring into Israel, videos from the frontlines showing destroyed Israeli and American armored vehicles and the startling images from the West, the images of Israeli and American soldiers hanging from crosses with the city of Jerusalem in the distance, all of these played on near-constant loops on any television station that the IR could control.
Shortly after those videos were shown, the Pope came out with a statement. He was less ornately dressed than on some other occasions, but the gravity of the situation called for quick action and less ceremony. “This treatment of Christians and Jews is intolerable. If the IR succeeds in capturing Jerusalem, they could destroy everything sacred to the Christian and Jewish religions. I declare that this wanton destruction and desecration of life by the IR is a crime, not just against humanity, but against the Christian and Jewish religions. I call on my brothers and sisters in faith to stand together against these horrible atrocities. We must take up the call to action.”
Within days, tens of thousands of Catholics and Protestants from across Europe were either joining the military or looking for ways to join the Israeli Defense Force Militia units that were originally established by the Vatican but quickly began to spring up in Italy, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. This movement quickly spread to South America, where the word of the Pope carried a lot of weight.
The Vatican had all but called this a Holy War against Islam. Tens of thousands of Muslims in Italy began to converge on the Vatican in protest; very quickly, the Muslim communities across Europe began to riot and take to the streets, attacking Christians and Jews in response to the Pope’s message.
Within hours of the Pope’s message, tens of thousands of Muslims converged on Washington, DC in protest. Several hundred young men used the protest as a cover to get close to the Capital building before launching their attack. They broke from the protest march and ran for the various Capital building exits, shooting police and security guards as they encountered them. Several dozen attackers were engaging the Capital Police near the main entrance while a group of seven individuals managed to break into one of the emergency exits. Within seconds, they were running through the hallways of the Capital, throwing grenades into offices and shooting everyone they encountered. Two other groups of attackers were able to enter other emergency exits and began their assault.
As additional police officers and SWAT members engaged the attackers, they were able to block them from the House Chamber, where a number of the senior Congressional leadership had evacuated to. A similar attack was also underway at the Senate building and two other government agencies within DC. The protest rally quickly spiraled out of control as police began to shoot the protesters and several gunmen hidden amongst the crowd continued to shoot at the police.
Thirty minutes after the start of the attacks against the Capital building and the Senate, the President activated the Continuity of Government (COG) plan, which began the dispersal of all elected officials to various command bunkers as the US Government went underground. The President also moved the American military to DEFCON One, bringing all US Forces to the highest level of readiness. This placed all US overseas military bases on a war footing in anticipation of combat operations.
Rioting and protests were starting to spring up all across the US as the various Muslim communities reacted to the destruction of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Pope’s message. Other Muslim groups began denouncing the barbaric acts the IR was perpetrating on the US and Israeli soldiers with the crucifixions, pleading for all sides to remain calm.
“Mr. President, the rioting is starting to get out of control in some cities. Just as we believe things are starting to calm down, some nut job starts shooting Muslims or Christians or Jews, and once again the situation is a boiling cauldron of fury and rage. The National Guard is still mobilizing and getting into position in the major cities, but something has to give,” said FBI Director Jane Smart.
“We need to give it some time, Director. Order is not going to be restored immediately; the National Guard needs time to get in place, DHS is still getting the detention processing camps established and so on. I just authorized curfews, as well as the use of deadly force with the rioters; if things do not calm down over the next 48 hours, we’ll look at the situation again.”
“I understand, Mr. President. We have more than just a detention problem. There are literally hundreds of cities experiencing this problem; the gangs in some of the major cities are also taking advantage of the situation. On top of it all, I have the ACLU breathing down my neck crying foul everywhere,” complained the Director of DHS.
“This war is almost 48 hours old; I do not give a crap what the ACLU says right now. We are under martial law and under the 2015 and 2039 Defense Authorization Act, I am operating within the legal bounds of the law. Let’s move on to a status update on the war — where do we stand, General Branson?” asked the President, clearly frustrated.
“Mr. President, everyone is aware of the atrocities the IR has been committing against our Forces. I’d fire and replace General Gardner for destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque, but right now he is in the thick of it and I think pulling him out would cause more problems than it would solve,” said Branson.