AP ECONOMIC NEWS FLASH: Oil companies specializing in domestic production as well as any alternative fuel companies are expected to trade much higher once the stock markets reopen. Almost all shipping companies are expected to open much lower due to confusion over which ones have been damaged in the hub region during recent events. Food and oil futures continue to trade at record highs on all international markets. Consumer prices will be impacted across all industries. Some economists are now saying we are facing a doomsday scenario, the result of which will be a global depression on a scale never before thought possible. The only way to avoid this seems to be either avoiding an active war or allowing for a very short one. Some economists think the rebuilding effort alone could break the economy in the United States. One economist has gone so far as to state that the only appropriate response, if the economy is to survive, is an all out nuclear response with the aim of destroying the Iranian capabilities to wage war instantly.
Chapter Seventeen
In the forty-eight hours since the attack, General Jackson had consistently been in the presence of, or in some way preparing to brief, the President. Today would be no exception. President Press, who General Jackson respected, needed all of the advice and council he could get.
The General was satisfied that they had enough information organized and prepared in order to offer details on the damage both to infrastructure and the number of lost lives to provide a meaningful briefing. They were also ready to take a small step in the larger, more strategic desire to get in front of the enemy’s next move and do something beyond the mere patching of wounds and burying of the dead.
The General was happy that the President had finally been able to get some sleep. That down time had been used as wisely as possible by Senior Military Leadership to prepare a more comprehensive understanding of what, and how, everything happened. They now understood enough to justify waking him up.
They had also managed to identify some actionable intelligence. They had some hope that with a little bit of luck acting upon it could yield a treasure trove of intelligence data. Once they had that new data they could then plan a more comprehensive, larger scale response.
At the very least, the proposed action would, almost without a doubt, allow them to determine if more of these nuclear hits were coming. The enemy had proven their ability and willingness to use this formidable destructive capability on military targets while not being concerned about any civilians that might happen to be in the way.
The Chairman was pouring himself another cup of coffee as the President and the Chief of Staff entered the situation room of the White House. The President had obviously just woken up, based on the current state of his clothes and hair. The man had always dressed up to his job title, until today. He was wearing jeans and a wrinkled t-shirt he may have grabbed off the floor of his bedroom. The bed-head hairstyle he was sporting would make a wonderful joke of a picture on social media if it were to be leaked.
This room was considered to be among the most secure briefing rooms in the world. It was one specifically designed to discuss and decide high-level military operations when security was an absolute must. If the veil of secrecy was broken in any of these discussions the military could lose the advantage of surprise and this could ultimately cost American lives. It was also where they would discuss American military weaknesses and if they were to become known it would be a situation he didn’t want to consider.
Also present in the room were all of the members of the Joint Chiefs, as well as the Secretary of Defense. All were dressed formally, either in military dress uniforms, or business suits, which was the normal protocol for this level of government. The President was different; he could wear whatever he wanted. With what had happened two days ago, and the subsequent travels, meetings, televised speeches and such, the man could have shown up in his underwear and none of the people in the room would have said a word about it.
“As you were,” said the President as he walked briskly into the room, “General, I got word that you gentlemen had something for me. Please proceed and give me something we can use.”
General Jackson took the spotlight, “Yes sir, we do, and we will. We have organized a reasonable amount of verified information for you. Then we have a small military operation to recommend which, if successful, could yield a great deal of actionable intelligence from which we can plan, and execute a much larger and more meaningful series of military strikes. Those follow on missions will be both overt and covert in nature.
“This two-step process will take into account everything we gave you twenty-four hours ago concerning their conventional force capabilities, and hopefully destroy any ability they have to challenge us via more unconventional means. This briefing also assumes Iran is working alone. So far all indications are that no other militaries in the area preparing to move in any fashion.”
He motioned to a Lieutenant operating the computer display behind him, an image showing a map of Israel appeared, “Sir, all five nuclear strikes were placed with great precision on a series of militarily well-chosen targets in both countries. You know all about the locations that were hit here. The strikes in Israel destroyed their entire nuclear arsenal, as well as a very large percentage of their conventional forces. Israel is, for all practical purposes, defenseless.
“With Israel’s nuclear weapons destroyed we can now confirm that the core materials from their weapons were badly damaged. This is a good news/bad new situation. The bad news is that the nuclear material was spread all around the local area for approximately five miles from where the weapons were stored. The radiation levels in those areas as a result are very high. Those levels are significantly higher than where we were attacked due to the much larger amount of fallout material involved.”
“Is a radiation cleanup operation possible either here or there?” asked the President.
“Maybe, in the longer term, but the scientific community is still in disagreement. If it can be done at all it will require a great deal of time and money. In the end it may not be possible. In order to make that determination we have asked Los Alamos National Laboratory to make a determination and report to us ASAP.
“Also, if it is possible at all it won’t be able to start quickly due to a lack of trained people. With or without any future cleanup plans FEMA has ordered a temporary quarantine zone around the regions hit here in the United States. How long they plan on keeping those areas quarantined, I don’t know.
“Now, for some of the good news concerning the Israeli situation. The core material has been so badly damaged that it can no longer be used to build new fission weapons should the area fall into Iranian hands. The material was scattered too far and wide.
“That turns out to be very good news as we now have satellite imagery of the Iranians getting their forces organized for what is mostly likely going to be a massive military ground invasion of Israel. They appear to be weeks away from being ready to do any kind of ground assault, but they are quickly getting ready. I want to re-iterate, they will be ready to move in weeks, not months. I have the Air Force and Naval Aviation working on a plan to slow their military ground operations. We will have more details for you on that later today. In the process of slowing their ground troops we will neutralized their air as well as any anti-aircraft assets.”
“You keep saying slow them down, instead of stop them cold, why is that?” asked the President.