Josh and I drove over to the Pentagon and were taken directly to the Situation Room, a secure facility in the basement where we could see all sorts of stuff. There was a conference table, computerized maps on the walls, various generals and admirals, and Colin Powell. I have to admit that I walked around looking at things. “I’ve never been in here before,” I commented.
“The big thing is that it is secure. We can’t be spied on here. Your cell phone won’t work, for instance,” commented General Myers. “Here, sir, why don’t you have a seat?” He pointed me towards a chair in the center of the table, opposite a large computer screen or flat panel system on the wall.
“Thank you.” I took my seat, and General Myers went around the table introducing me to people. At the end, I nodded to Myers and said, “Well, let’s see what you have for me. By the way, General, Secretary Powell has told me I have to behave. We are keeping the name Enduring Freedom.” That earned a laugh out of Colin Powell.
I might have been rough on the General a few days ago, but the man was a professional and took my words to heart. He had developed a multi-prong approach.
* On the date selected, which was simply being called ‘X-Day’ for now, a dozen B-2 stealth bombers would fly directly from the United States, from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. They would be loaded with precision guided bombs and would be tasked with destroying anything air defense related, as well as any targets near cities that needed precision targeting. These targets would include army and air force bases, military headquarters, and government buildings. They would fly direct, and because they were radar-invisible (mostly) would overfly a number of countries on the way.
* Simultaneously, a flight of B-1 bombers would fly in, loaded with as many dumb iron bombs as they could carry. While they weren’t technically stealthy, they had a lot lower radar signature than B-52s. They would stage out of Diego Garcia and would fly in over the relatively uninhabited southwestern portion of Pakistan. Once inside Afghanistan, they would proceed to various training camps and army bases, and then do high speed, low level bomb runs, carpet bombing whatever they were assigned to. They actually showed me a video of a Bone (B-One, get it?) on a training run, popping up over a mountain range and dropping down so low it looked like the exhaust was hitting the ground, and then whipping over a target and dropping a massive load of bombs out. It was quite impressive.
* B-52s would make a second wave attack on the various training bases about an hour after the Bones plastered them. It was commented that by giving the terrorists time to dig out and start looking for their buddies, the second attack would catch them flatfooted and demoralized. Colin commented that it would be like Arc-Light strikes back during his Viet Nam days, and that they were surprisingly accurate.
* Special operations teams, (Special Forces, SEALs, Marine Force Recon, Delta, etc.) would be parachuted into northern Afghanistan to link up with the Northern Alliance, a loose alliance of resistance groups. They would have special radios able to talk to bombers and target bad guys quickly. After the initial attacks, B-2 and B-1 bombers with precision munitions would be on call 24-7 to blow up bad guys as needed.
* Meanwhile, the Navy was going to have several aircraft carriers stationed off the coast of Pakistan. If the Pakistanis decided to butt in, the Navy was going to be responsible. They were already positioning assets, which meant that they had two carriers in the area, with a third on the way, and most of their cruisers and destroyers had long range Tomahawks as well. If they didn’t need the Tomahawks for the Pakistanis, they could fire some at the Afghans.
* Diego Garcia was getting a buttload of tanker and intelligence support planes being flown in even as we spoke. Tankers I understood, but the intelligence stuff was a variety of ‘elint’ electronic intelligence planes and even some U-2 spy planes!
After the show was over, I looked around the table and nodded. “General, I have to say, this was definitely a better plan than what I saw the other day. I think you have in mind what we are looking for. I am going to tentatively approve this. I do have some questions first, though.”
“Understood, sir. Anything we can answer now?”
“Probably.” I looked over to find an admiral with some insignia I didn’t know how to read. I glanced at his name card, Vern Clark. “Admiral Clark, are you in charge of the naval portion of this?”
“Yes, sir, I’m Chief of Naval Operations,” he replied
“What kind of assets will you have available?”
“On what day do you plan on this, sir?”
I looked at a calendar. “Monday, October 8 sound all right? I don’t think they celebrate Columbus Day over there.”
He gave a slight smile at that. “No, sir, I don’t think they do.” He thought for a second and said, “By then I can have three carriers on the line. Right now we have one in the Bay of Bengal and the other in the Arabian Sea. We’ll move the one from the Bay of Bengal over, and I’ll have a third as backup by then. We’ll also have Tomahawk loaded ships with them.”
“And if the Pakistanis get feisty?”
“Sir, I am not trying to make light of this, but three carriers can handle anything the Pakistanis can throw at them. I would appreciate it, however, if you could try to keep them from getting feisty.” The last was said with a smile and shrug.
“My thought is that when we start the bombing runs, I call the Pakistani ambassador to the White House and lay down the law.”
“Yes, sir.”
Next I turned back to the Air Force and reviewed their list of targets. I got several nervous looks at this, because several of the targets were located uncomfortably close to mosques. I gave them my best stone-face look and signed off on them. I really wasn’t in the mood to worry about mosques or civilian casualties. As far as I was concerned, they had earned whatever happened to them.
I looked over at an Army general and asked, “How do we get your guys home, General? I don’t think we want to leave them there.”
“Are we bringing them back, sir? Or are they going to be the first wave of an assault?”
I shook my head. “I am not about to invade a landlocked country. We are going to kill their Army and then go home. The locals can do with the place whatever they want. It’s not like we want it.”
“We are still working on some of the details. Two possibilities are being considered. First, we can stage them out of Uzbekistan, on the northern border. The other choice is simply to figure on picking them up with C-130s from rough airstrips and roads.”
“You have until October 8 to figure it out, General.”
“Yes, sir! HOO-AH!”
I had to laugh at that. Across the table, though, I had some serious looking faces. Colin Powell said, “You are not planning on an invasion.”
“Definitely not. Let me make that very clear. I am quite aware that there were plans afoot to invade Iraq and other Arab countries. I can envision few things which would be more dangerous for us to do. These are people who do not like us. We can kill them and destroy their armies, but if we invade them we are nothing but modern day Crusaders and colonialists. We are not their religion or culture, and no matter how hard we try, they will never love us or want us there. We need to get in, do our thing, and get out.”
I looked around the table. “So far, so good. We can destroy training camps and trash Afghanistan. What about Al Qaeda? I mean, the big guys, not the recruits. Are they being targeted?” Several heads turned towards the end of the table, where two middle-aged men in civilian suits were sitting. I am sure we had been introduced, but their names passed by me. I did remember they were CIA liaisons of some sort. I looked at them and asked, “Gentlemen, where is this bin Laden character? Is one of these Xs his house?”