To complicate things further in Europe, the American Embassies in Paris, Rome, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain and Germany were brutally attacked on the third day of the war. The Embassies were pummeled with multiple Vehicle Borne IEDs (VBIEDs) and RPGs and then they were directly assaulted by hundreds of “protesters,” as the EU media was calling them.
The Germans had caught wind of the threat and had prepared accordingly. When the attack was about to get underway, hundreds of German police and counterterrorism units intercepted the attackers. The outcome was a massive shootout in central Berlin that resulted in two VBIEDs going off, causing considerable damage to the neighboring buildings.
In Great Britain, the British arrested most of the attackers in the middle of the night and prevented the others from getting close to the Embassy.
The Paris attack was perhaps the most disturbing. The French had been dealing with hundreds of attacks between Jews, Christians, Muslims and rioting across the country. Despite intelligence sharing between countries within the EU, they were caught unprepared for the attack against the Embassy. Ten individuals attacked the French police guarding the Embassy with machine guns, killing them quickly. One individual unslung an RPG-7VR and blew apart the Marine guard station next to the gate, killing the two Marines and security contractors.
Within seconds, a cargo van drove directly into the front gate and exploded a 1,000 lb. bomb, destroying the primary and secondary gates. A second van drove through the newly created hole in the Embassy security and drove straight for the front entrance. Three security guards opened fire on the van, killing the driver. As the van began to slow down, someone detonated the bomb, exploding 3,000 lbs. of Semtex High Explosives. The VBIED blew the entire face of the Embassy right off, creating multiple new entries into the building.
Five additional vans arrived and disgorged 30 heavily armed men, who quickly began to storm the Embassy. In less than five minutes, they had captured the Ambassador, Deputy Ambassador and 23 employees. They were quickly moved to the vans and driven away while the remaining armed men began killing everyone in the building and waited for the police to arrive. By the end of the day, 136 US and French nationals were killed during the attack; an additional 61 police officers were killed as well. The next day, a video was posted showing the Ambassador and the 24 other individuals crucified on crosses and their bodies being set on fire; the screams they made were horrific. This same type of attack occurred at the other Embassies, with the Ambassadors and their staffs also being crucified the following day.
President Stein was furious with the EU for not providing better security for the Embassies. The fact that the diplomats were crucified on a cross and then set on fire further infuriated the President and the American people.
“Chancellor Lowden, we have started the call up of the Reserves. Our active duty forces are now on high alert and ready to deploy to the cities when you are ready,” Minister of Defense André Gouin said as he looked at the faces around the table.
“I do not like the idea of deploying the military into the cities, but we have to do something. The rioting and the attacks on the American Embassies are too much. President Stein was enraged when he called me this morning.”
“Perhaps if President Stein had kept his generals under control and not destroyed the Al Aqsa Mosque, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paolo Prodi.
“I might have done the same thing if I was in General Gardner’s position, after seeing video of our soldiers being crucified on crosses. That is beyond barbaric,” said General Volker Naumann, the EU Military Chief of Staff, shooting a stern look at Minister Prodi.
“Gentlemen, arguing is not going to change the situation. We have to deal with it and move forward; I want solutions, not arguments.”
“If you want to solve the problem, then we need to encourage the Muslim populations in our countries to leave and join the Islamic Republic. As long as they are here, they are going to cause problems. They refuse to assimilate, learn our languages and demand that our women dress more conservatively and wear a headdress. French women are scared to go out in public in certain areas of Paris for fear of being attacked,” said General Naumann, looking each person in the eye.
“Chancellor, I do not believe it is possible for us to evict them from our country, at least not peacefully. What we can do is deploy the military into the cities to return law and order. As Muslims are apprehended for violations of our laws, they can be moved to a detention facility we intend to set up in Marseille. From there, we will load them on freighters and send them to Algeria or Tunisia, both IR members. If the IR will not accept them, then sink the ship in the harbor,” said André Gouin as he took a sip of expresso.
“I cannot even believe you would suggest such a thing,” said Paolo as he pointed angrily at Gouin.
“Enough!” shouted Chancellor Lowden. “We, as the government, need to have a unified plan and deal with this problem immediately. Paulo, I understand your concerns, and I share them as well. However, the state of the world has changed so much in such a short time; while the majority of the Muslim populations in our countries used to be peaceful, we can no longer say that is true. The last five days have resulted in over 9,242 people being killed, and four times that many injured. We cannot continue to debate this. I do not like this plan at all, but I can see that it is the only plan right now that will work. Minister Gouin, order the military into the cities. General Naumann, crush this uprising.”
After spending several days in the underground bunker, the President returned back to the White House, albeit with a significant military presence protecting the residence, in addition to the regular detail of Secret Service. Despite his advisors saying he should continue to stay underground with the rest of the government, the President was adamant that he needed to be in the White House and project to the American people a sense of calm. It was imperative that people stop panicking and do their best to return back to their daily lives.
The President met with the CEOs and head producers for each of the major news networks and insisted that their coverage start to focus on the positive aspects of the war (victories, defeats of the enemy, winning), the economy and other stories rather than coverage aimed at scaring the public and further inciting rioting and violence between American Muslims and non-Muslims. The news agencies agreed to refocus a majority of their coverage to topics that would hopefully help to diffuse the growing violence and panic that was starting to run amuck. Even the journalists, usually keen to find the most salacious stories possible in order to rack up their ratings, realized society would not function if everything imploded. They knew they could do something to help bring some calm to the situation and moved to do so.
“Does the President understand how many casualties we are sustaining? We need more reinforcements now or we may lose the rest of Israel,” said General Gardner through the secured video phone in the Situation Room while the group waited for the President to arrive.
“General, we know how many soldiers you are losing, and so does the President,” said General Aaron Wade, the Central Command CG.
“—Sorry I’m late gentlemen. Monty and I were held up in the economic meeting. Please, let’s start the briefing,” the President said as he sat down at the head of the table. “Before we move to Israel, update me on the situation in the EU and our forces there.”