Ian Slater - Payback

It is our view that insofar as the launchers found at JFK, LAX, and Dallas/Fort Worth were clearly North Korean, whoever the terrorists are, the base or factory from which these missiles came must be found and destroyed, even if it takes us years — as it did following Libya’s destruction of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

In addition to the appalling loss of lives, from those of our children so viciously murdered aboard the 7E7 at JFK to those who perished so horribly at LAX and Dallas/Fort Worth, these three cowardly acts of war against civilians constitute an acute blow to the heart of our economic well-being. That prescient man George Orwell, long before he wrote his prophetic warning against the growth of totalitarian states, cautioned that “freedom essentially means the freedom to move to and fro across the surface of the earth” and warned us that, rather than adopt what he called the “sit on your bum and do nothing” philosophy of all those well-meaning but hopelessly naive pacifists, the fanatical totalitarian minds of the kind that assaulted this country on 9/11 must be fought against.

We do not propose the use of a nuclear threat against terrorists, but at this moment we need a Churchillian resolve, for whether or not these deadly attacks against America have been launched either directly by their perpetrators or by proxy, those responsible must be dealt with without compunction. We of course need time, perhaps months, to prepare, but inaction on our part would signal nothing less to our enemies than weakness, and only encourage further attacks.

As the battle for public opinion in the press and amongst the talking heads, such as Marte Price on TV, raged, opinion on the street was equally divided but no less passionate. In the White House’s basement situation room, however, there was by contrast a somber calm. Two decisions had been made by the President. The first, based on the fact that the CIA had determined that all three discarded launchers had MIDs on them that indicated a warehouse on the outskirts of the North Korean coastal town of Kosong, was to attack the warehouse.

“Why,” posited Air Force General Lesand, “don’t we just bomb the hell out of it? One B-2 out of Diego Garcia and we could obliterate the damn thing.”

“Excuse me,” said Eleanor Prenty, her National Security Advisor voice authoritative but testy with fatigue. “Who is it you’d like to declare war against, General? Just North Korea or China as well?”

“I—,” began General Lesand, his tone already defensive.

“Have you any idea, General, any idea at all, of what the political implications would be of an air attack? What a bombing attack, an invasion of air space, would mean for us on the most highly militarized peninsula on earth?”

“I wasn’t suggesting a massive bombing,” said Lesand. “One laser-guided BLU—”

“One hand grenade, General,” Eleanor snapped. “One hand grenade dropped by a U.S. plane on North Korea could precipitate a full-scale war against South Korea, which, might I remind you, is barely eleven miles from Kosong. And over there on the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea, hair triggers and tempers are the order of the day, every day.”

“What’s the difference between a bomb and, say, a—”

“A Special Forces attack?” suggested Eleanor.

“Well, yes,” replied Lesand.

“General,” said Eleanor, “covert attacks by our special forces, those of our allies, and those of the terrorists are happening even as we speak. They won’t make the evening news. But any kind of invasion of airspace in what the guys over in State call the ‘China Arc,’ that is, everything from Hunchun in northeast China off the Sea of Japan past the Korean Peninsula to the big Chinese naval base at Qingdao on the Yellow Sea, could precipitate a general war between the United States and China, let alone North Korea. We cannot risk violating North Korean or Chinese airspace, as it is, and we sure as hell can’t go dropping bombs on them. Besides which, we need hard evidence of MANPAD storage at Kosong. Bombing won’t help us get that. It’s out of the question. The Chinese military leadership went slack-jawed when they saw how easily we knocked out Iraq’s air defense in the ’91 war. Suddenly they realized that their cold-war theory of massed tanks and troops couldn’t overcome Western technological expertise, so they’ve had a big push on for early warning air defenses. As you know, General, a Stealth bomber may have no bigger radar signature than a sparrow, but the ChiCom’s new coastal Sa, or Kill, radar, could get a lock on it and that is all the evidence Pyongyang and Beijing need of an enemy air attack. Besides which, whether a bomb is dropped by Stealth or non-Stealth airplanes, a bomb announces its arrival.”

“So,” cut in the Air Force Chief of Staff, “you’re talking about sending in Special Forces.”

“General Lesand,” explained Eleanor, her patience running thin, “a bombing attack caught on ChiCom radar will be on CNN in half an hour and in the U.N. General Assembly tomorrow. The political ramifications are—”

“Okay,” said Lesand. “So what are we doing, sending in a Special Forces company?”

Eleanor and the others looked at the President.

“I agree,” said the President. “Drop them in, do the job, and get out. Not too messy but messy enough to get the job done.”

The second decision, on which there was also unanimity among the Joint Chiefs, the President, and Eleanor Prenty, was that the White House must disavow any intention of doing what it had decided to do — namely, to attack the warehouse from which, it was believed, the MANPADs had come and where others were stored. It was situated ten miles north of the DMZ, or the demilitarized zone, that had separated North and South Korea since the armistice had been signed at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953, at the end of the fierce three-year-long fighting that the Useless Nations had declared a U.N. “police action.” In fact, the fighting between North Korea and the U.S.-led U.N. alliance had been a bitter full-scale conventional war. An armistice was signed, but it was only that, an armistice, a ceasefire, the two countries remaining technically and at times literally at war since 1953, so that any attack anywhere in North Korea by U.S. forces, large or small, ran a high risk of initiating full-scale warfare. The President was prepared to take that risk — as JFK had done during the Cuban Missile Crisis — but his second decision was that everything must be done to allay North Korean suspicion of any such impending retaliation by the U.S.

“It won’t matter,” said the Air Force Chief General Lesand. “It’ll be like Iraq. Whatever we say, they’ll be expecting a hit. They’ll be on high alert.”

“They’re always on high alert,” countered Marine General Taft sharply.

The President’s eyes searched the room. “Can you do it? That’s the question, gentlemen.”

“Casualties could be heavy, Mr. President,” cautioned Lesand.

“I mean Special Forces. In and out. Can we do it?”

“Yes, sir,” said Taft.

“All right,” said the President wearily. “Anything else?” He was as exhausted as everyone else.

“Mr. President?” said National Security Advisor Eleanor Prenty, albeit tenuously. “May I suggest we call on Douglas Freeman for some out-of-house advice on this one. He’s very knowledgeable about this MANPAD stuff.”

“Fine with me,” said the President easily. “Gentlemen, any objections?”

“He’s very opinionated,” put in Lesand. “Troops used to call him ‘PR’—Patton Resurrected.”

“I know,” said the President. “And they used to say he’s the spitting image of George C. Scott, but the other political party in this country used to call me an obstinate son of a bitch.”