“I’m amazed the Canal can be repaired in that amount of time, Eric. I thought we might have lost use of it for much longer,” said the President with a hint of optimism.
“We thought it was going to be out of commission longer as well; thankfully, the blast was not nuclear or a dirty bomb, so it’s just a matter of repairing the infrastructure as opposed to decontaminating everything prior to working on it.”
“I know I’m changing subjects, but how is the recruiting going?” asked Secretary Perez from DHS.
“Surprisingly well. The first week of the war, we had 2,300,000 volunteers. The issue we face right now is processing them all and getting them into training. It is taking nearly three weeks to get a new recruit to basic training. We have twelve new basic training locations being opened, and we’ve tripled the size of the existing sites. Last week we had another 1,700,000 people join,” Eric said.
“Do we still need to look at a draft with these numbers?” asked the President, hoping to keep the Armed Forces an all-volunteer force.
“Yes, Mr. President.”
“Even with nearly four million people joining the military in the last seventeen days?” asked the DHS Director, a bit surprised.
“Four million men and women is a lot, but this war is going to need a lot more. We are facing a Chinese military that is close to 40 million strong with their active and reserve force. The Russians have activated their entire reserve, bringing their total force to over 20 million, and the Islamic Republic still has over 6 million troops, despite the losses they are incurring in Israel.”
“We also need a lot of tech savvy recruits for our drone and other technical programs. A lot of these training programs are in excess of six to eighteen months. Even with accelerating the training, it is going to take time to field these new soldiers. In the meantime, we’ve lost over 71,242 service members in Israel, 32,435 service members in Asia and 2,352 in Mexico. These are just our KIAs; our wounded are nearly triple that,” Eric said with a deep sigh. He rubbed his temples, unable to hide the stress.
“We are going to need an army closer to ten to twelve million strong and a complete retooling of our entire economy to accommodate war production in order to win this war, and it will take years, not months.”
Monty broke in and quickly asked, “Things are not that bad are they? We are about to crush an entire IR army in the Jordan Valley.”
“It’s not that they are dire right now; it’s the combined weight of Russia, China and the IR that will eventually crush us. We have no blocking force in the Pacific right now, leaving Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast exposed. The Russians are about to enter the war, and will most likely roll over the EU within six months. With the Russian and Chinese navies and most of our carriers and naval forces destroyed, there is little we can do to stop the Chinese or Russians from taking Hawaii, Alaska or making a move into our Canadian States,” explained CIA Director Rubio.
The President saw the realization of what Director Rubio had just said, and he knew he had to regain control of the mood and thoughts of his advisors before they began to think the situation was hopeless.
“Gentlemen, America has been in tough positions in the past, and in each case we have risen above them to new greatness. This will be no exception. Our soldiers are using the most advanced infantry rifle in the world; we have already seen it make a difference in Israel. Our new Pershing tanks are unrivalled on the battlefield. They defeated the best Russian and Chinese made tanks near Damascus, and it’s that same railgun technology that cut down over 5,000 IR fighter drones that swarmed over Israel.”
“The American soldier is the toughest killing machine in the world, and we will win this war! It may not be in six months, or even a year, but mark my words; as long as I am President, we will fight this war through to victory. We are Americans; we are not just the greatest country on earth, and we are the most innovative and craftiest devils in history. If any of you doubt that fact, then I ask you to resign immediately and we will replace you with someone who will work tirelessly for complete and total victory,” said the President, eying all of his directors, generals and advisors.
The room became silent. The few who had doubts about America’s ability to win this war quickly lost them with the President’s fiery pep talk. Monty broke the silence. “So that everyone is aware — the CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have assured us that their entire manufacturing capability is in the process of switching over to manufacturing armored vehicles, tanks, drones, missiles and anything else we need. They will no longer produce any new American vehicles for the duration of the war, and will focus solely on building military equipment. Wal-Mart and Amazon are assisting with the logistics and movement of material across the US and to the operational theaters. Lockheed, Boeing and General Dynamics have ramped up production to 24/7 operations producing cruise missiles, fighter and bomber aircraft, along with our entire suite of fighter drone aircraft.”
Secretary Gibbs also added, “The Treasury Department has also begun to seize all IR and Chinese assets in the US, including businesses, buildings and other assets that the Chinese and IR subsidiary firms have in the US. We have also frozen the bank accounts of all government and private individuals from those countries, and we are in the process of seizing those financial assets as well.”
“The rest of the banking community has been made aware that the US will not do business with any financial institution or corporation that has a joint venture with these countries or that has financial dealings with them. The seizing of assets alone has netted the federal government $1.8 Trillion NAD in cash and $5.6 Trillion in physical assets, such as buildings and businesses,” said Joyce.
“What are we going to do with the money and assets from these seizures?” asked Secretary of State Wise.
“The cash is going into the regular federal budget; I assume it will be used to help fund and pay for the war. The physical assets will be sold on the open market for any US persons or corporations to purchase. The proceeds from these sales will also go into the government coffers—”
The President interrupted to add his thoughts. “—We did not start this war, nor are we going to allow these countries and their people to benefit financially from the conflict or sabotage our war efforts. The money being seized will be used to directly fund the war. Director Perez, can you tell us about your meeting with the various heads from the Silicon Valley?”
“Yes, Mr. President. Yesterday I had a meeting with the heads of Google, Apple and some other IT corporations in Silicon Valley. They have agreed to shut off internet access to China, in addition to the entire IR. We’ll be instructing them to move ahead with cutting off the Russians as well. Cutting them out of the internet (or at least the 70 % of it that Silicon Valley controls) is going to have a devastating effect on them,” said Director Perez with a smile.
Secretary Wise looked puzzled. “How did you manage to get them to go along with this? I would have thought they would have baulked at losing money from those markets.”
“They initially did baulk at it; they even said they would ignore our directive. Then Secretary Gibbs joined our meeting and said their assets would be frozen for aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war if they did not go along with the program,” Director Perez said with a smirk.