Prelude to World War III: The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America

by James Rosone

  “I understand your concern Talal, and the Americans will most likely respond with more nuclear weapons. This is our chance to hurt the Americans at home; for nearly a century and a half, the Americans have waged war in our lands and killed our people by the millions. This may be the Muslim world’s last chance to really hurt the Americans bad, and I intend to take it.”

  “Caliph, we are grinding the American military down in Israel; the Chinese have just entered the war and are hitting the Americans hard. The Russians will launch their attack soon. We need only to stay the course and we will achieve our victory without nuclear weapons.”

  “You speak wise words Talal; however, we already have Allah’s Swords in place--”

  “--If we do this, we will lose the Republic. The Americans will destroy everything in retaliation, and even if we do win with Russian and Chinese help, we will not have a functioning country for our people to enjoy our hard won victory,” said Talal, almost pleading with Mohammed.

  “If I may, Caliph--as the senior military commander for the Republic, I have to agree with Talal. I want to nuke New York City just as bad as you, but I also want to live to enjoy our victory, and my soldiers will want a country to return back to. With the Chinese and soon the Russians entering the war, it will not be long until we have destroyed Israel and permanently removed the Americans from the lands of Allah. Then we should let the Russians and Chinese destroy America for us,” said General Hamza with a somber look.

  Caliph Mohammed sighed deeply. “…You both have given me pause. Huseen, continue with the attack on the Canal. Have our operatives continue to hold on to Allah’s Swords. We will wait and leave them in place for the time being.”

  *******

  14 December 2040

  Day Sixteen

  Kremlin, Moscow

  “Generals, the Islamic Republic has been battling the American and Israeli forces for sixteen days. How can they possibly have lost 13,000 fighter drones and over 60% of the aircraft that we sold them and the pilots that we trained?” asked President Mikhail Fradkov.

  “The American anti-aircraft, anti-missile railgun systems have proven to be far more effective than we believed possible. Their new Pershing main battle tank also has this technology and completely destroyed our frontline battle tanks we sold to the IR. They were able to engage the IR tanks at maximum range, never allowing the IR tanks to get close enough to fire a shot. When a few of the tanks were able to get a shot or two off, the rounds just bounced off their new armor,” said General Gerasimov with a look of anxiety.

  “General Sergun, the GRU assured us that the Americans had not been able to produce these new railgun weapon systems in sufficient numbers to be a problem; yet, they are completely destroying entire drone armadas, and our state-of-the-art tanks cannot get close enough to fire a shot at their tanks. What do you have to say for yourself?” asked the President, clearly irritated.

  “Mr. President, the Americans only have one division of Pershing tanks with the new railgun systems. That group is currently bogged down in Israel. They do not have another division of these tanks that can be deployed to Europe. Their mobile and fixed anti-missile, anti-aircraft railgun systems are also limited in number. They have deployed the bulk of these units to their military forces in Israel and now in Asia to fight the Chinese--”

  “--Yes, but they are mass producing these weapons, are they not?”

  “Yes, Mr. President. They are, but it will take time before they have sufficient numbers.”

  “This still creates a problem for us. Have they shared this technology and the plans with the EU? Are they now producing these weapons as well?”

  “Our sources have confirmed the Americans have provided this information to their European partners, and yes, the EU is now starting to produce these weapons. Again, this is a very advanced technology; it is not something that can be mass-produced and deployed quickly. It took the Americans nearly three years to produce enough tanks to field one division. We have time on our side, but only if we act soon,” said General Sergun with a look of confidence.

  “If we were facing the Americans and the EU at full strength, then these new weapons would pose a significant problem for us. As it stands, the Americans are heavily engaged in Israel, Mexico and now they have to deal with China. They are not going to be a factor in Europe,” said General Dmitri Putin, who had recently returned from Central Asia.

  “General Putin, how soon could the First and Third Shock Armies invade the EU?” asked the President.

  “I need three days for both army groups to be ready once you give the order. The Third Shock Army will cross into Western Ukraine and then travel to Romania and Hungary. The First Shock Army will cross into Poland and drive towards Germany. The EU army is not large enough or prepared enough to stand against two experienced combat army groups.”

  “Do you agree with General Putin’s assessment, General Gerasimov?”

  “I do, but we should wait until Christmas Eve. Let’s see what the Chinese do these next two weeks.”

  “The destruction of the Panama Canal sure caught the Chinese by surprise. They had originally wanted to capture it.”

  “They should have worked that out with the IR,” said General Putin with a smirk on his face.

  “Prepare your forces, General Putin; the attack will commence on December 24th. It will make for a warm present to the EU and America from Russia.”

  “Mr. President, I have one last question before I leave to prepare my forces. Will the MiG 40 be ready?” asked General Putin, determined to get a truthful answer.

  “Sergei, what is the status of the new MiG?” asked the President, knowing that Putin would put the screws to him if he believed he was being misled.

  “I had lunch with the CEO of Mikoyan, Artem Gurevich, and he assures me that the MiG 40 will be ready at the end of this week. They have completed the software patch and testing of the system as of today. With the modified timeline, there will be 120 aircraft available with thirty additional aircraft being completed each month,” responded Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense.

  “I do not mean to dismiss the MiG, but how will 120 aircraft be a deciding factor?” asked Putin, wanting to know why this new aircraft could possibly be so important.

  “The MiG 40 is a unique aircraft; aside from its ability to fly at Mach 3 and a range of nearly 900 miles, it is the only aircraft that uses not just stealth technology but also incorporates a translucent fiber optic exterior camouflage that mimics its surroundings. This means that the aircraft is invisible to the naked eye. It has virtually no radar signature, and can only be tracked by the heat it emits, making it nearly impossible to detect until it is too late. It can carry a total of eight missile or six guided munitions,” said Sergei.

  “It will be impressive if it finally works,” said Alexander Manturov, the Minister of Industry and Trade. He did not believe the aircraft warranted the immense amount of money and resources it was consuming.

  “This aircraft has cost a fortune,” asserted Anton Shoygu, the Minister of Finance. “This is like the American JF-35 program--a trillion-dollar program for one aircraft line.”

  “Gentlemen, this aircraft will be effective, even if a few more bugs have to be worked out, and when it is utilized, it will be the most advanced aircraft in the world. The Americans have nothing like it; this aircraft will dominate the skies long enough for us to win the war,” replied President Fradkov with confidence.

  “I look forward to using it to secure the skies over Europe for my ground forces. It had better work,” General Putin said with a hint of skepticism in his voice.

  Unholy War

  15 December 2040

  Day Seventeen

  Tel Aviv, Israel

  General Gardner’s Headquarters

  With nearly 290,000 US Forces in Israel, President Stein reluctantly gave General Gardner his fourth star and overall command of US Forces in Israel. The President was still mad at General Gardner for the de
struction of the Al Aqsa Mosque. However, despite his displeasure with his actions, Gardner was becoming a brilliant military tactician and had grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat.

  General Wade, the CENTCOM Commander, and his planners were developing a plan to invade Turkey via Greece once the situation in Israel had been stabilized. In the meantime, they were still working on how to move 140,000 soldiers in Germany and 110,000 troops in Italy to Israel. There were still another 350,000 troops on the east coast waiting for transport to Europe, which had become more complicated with the loss of US satellite communications and GPS.

  General Gardner walked into an underground command bunker to address his senior officers and NCOs; he had commandeered the site from the IDF. “Everyone listen up. We are going to have to deal with the fact that we do not have satellite communications or surveillance and, yes, there is a serious disruption to our supply lines. We train for this junk, so just get over the loss--we have a war to win,” barked General Gardner. “The Air Force is providing continuous drone surveillance and communication flights across the battlefield, the Navy is continuing to ferry reinforcements from Italy, and the 80th and 81st drone attack wings have been tearing into the IR supply lines and frontline troops. They have also lost nearly 460 ground attack drones, so we will not have as many available for close air support--keep that in mind as well.”

  “For the last 18 days we’ve been getting our butts handed to us on a platter, and now it’s time for us to go on the offensive. We are going to encircle the IR forces in the Jordan Valley and cut them off from the rest of their army. Once we have them encircled, the 307th Bomber Wing is going to conduct a massive carpet bombing of the entire valley. Their attack will quickly be followed up with the 80th and 81st drone attack wings, and a massive napalm attack will finish them off.” Audible whistles could be heard throughout the room.

  “Major General Kennedy, the 3rd ID has been doubled in strength, re-equipped and supplied. Tonight your forces are going on the offense. The Marines have been slugging it out with the IR forces in Be’er Sheva for over a week. The 80th Air Wing has been pounding the crap out of the IR forces in that sector for the last 18 hours to soften them up. I want the 3rd ID to pass through the Marine positions and hit the IR hard; then drive your division to Arad and onward to the Masada Forest Preserve near the Dead Sea. Be prepared to hold that territory.”

  General Gardner turned to the next divisional commander. “Major General Peeler, the 4th Marines are going to move through your lines and support the 3rd ID by holding the line from Beit Kama, Lahav and Meitar, where they will form the left flank of General Kennedy’s defensive line. The 80th Air Wing will provide continuous air support to your division’s forces, so use them as needed. Moving to the north, Major General Petraeus, your 4th ID is fresh and about to get bloodied. The IR forces have been making a push again at Umm al-Fahm; your division will need to push the IR forces back and then secure Ein Harod-Ihud down to Beit She’an. It is imperative that your division hold this line. The IR is going to press your troops hard in an effort to cut our forces in half. You absolutely cannot let this happen, no matter the cost to your division. Your position is perhaps the most important in this whole attack scheme.” General Petraeus nodded in acknowledgement of the significance of his mission.

  Major General David Petraeus Jr. was the son of the famous General David Petraeus, the man who had essentially won the peace and the war in Iraq in the late 2000s. Like his father, he had attended West Point and followed in his father’s same career track, leading him to his current position as a divisional commander. “Major General Twitty, I need the 1st Armored Division to bring the hammer down and close the back door. Your division is to push through the 4th ID at Beit She’an and drive hard to Zubaydat, As Salt, Jericho and Almog along the Dead Sea. This area is good tank country, but you will need to watch your six with Amman to your back. It’s imperative that the 1st Armored and 3rd ID hold your positions at the Dead Sea. This will leave the IR forces nowhere to go.”

  “The IDF, along with the 101st Airborne, will hold the line in front of Lod, Rehovot and Kiryat Gat. Once the bombing runs are completed, all divisions will move forward and shrink the perimeter until we secure the entire valley,” General Gardner ordered.

  General Kennedy raised his hand. “Once we’ve destroyed these pigs, are we going to get our payback for their crucifixions?” he asked.

  The Marine commanders, who were beyond enraged, jumped in. “We found over 153 Marines crucified when we re-secured the Ben-Gurion University campus near Negev the other day,” blurted General Peeler, eyes burning with rage.

  “I know everyone wants payback for the crucifixions, and I assure you we will have it. Once the battlefields have been secured and the grave registration units move in, they are going to bury the IR forces in mass graves. They will do their best to identify the IR soldiers so that they can be properly marked. Prior to the graves being filled in, they have been instructed to cover all the bodies in pig’s blood, which the Germans and Brits have supplied. We have documented over 5,000 crucifixions of US Forces, so we will bury their dead in pig’s blood in retaliation; they believe that this will prevent them from entering Paradise, so we will test that theory.”

  A few laughs, snickers and whoops could be heard, mostly from the NCO’s.

  This was a tactic used by General “Black Jack” Pershing in the Philippines prior to World War One. The US had taken possession of the Philippines during the Spanish American War of 1898. In 1911, a Muslim uprising took place in Mindanao, and General Pershing had the insurgents shot with bullets dipped in pig’s blood and then their bodies were buried with the guts of the pig. This discouraged future Muslim attacks by future Jihadis because they believed they would be prevented from entering Paradise if they were buried with the blood from a pig and its guts. General Gardner’s staff wanted to take a page from history and see if it would make a difference in this war--any small advantage that could be gained was something worth pursuing, no matter how strange or unconventional it may be.

  “If anyone has further questions, please stay behind and ask them to Brigadier General Williams. I want everyone ready to move within the next twelve hours.”

  *******

  15 December 2040

  Day Seventeen

  The HIVE, Presidential Briefing

  “Eric, are the other HIVE locations operational yet?” asked Monty.

  “All thirty sites are operational; we’ve located and moved every member of Congress and senior government official along with their families to the secured locations. There should be no more high level assassinations,” said Eric Jordan in a serious tone.

  “I still cannot believe the Chinese would openly assassinate our elected officials,” said Jorge Perez in disbelief.

  “The world powers seem to be trying pretty hard to put us down for the count,” said Monty angrily.

  “Is the President going to sign the Executive Orders for the Trinity Project today?” asked Director Perez.

  “We are still going forward with the program? I thought we had agreed to table that,” said Jane Smart, the Director of the FBI.

  “We had tabled it, until the Chinese killed all but three of the Supreme Court Judges and Senator Landrew. Between the Muslim extremists in our country and Chinese sleeper agents, the President made the decision to move forward with it last night,” explained Monty.

  “I understand your concern with it Jane; if it does not work, then we will shut it down,’ said Director Perez.

  “Call me old fashioned, but once this program goes live I highly doubt it will ever be turned off. It’ll become too powerful a tool to simply cancel it.”

  “Right now, we need to stop these terrorist attacks and bring some sense of security to the American people. The war in Israel is finally starting to turn in our favor, but the Chinese have really hit us hard,” explained Monty with a bit of concern in his voice.

  The Trinity Program was the culminatio
n of decades of identity intelligence collection, social media monitoring, big data and predictive behavioral analysis into one program. Essentially, the program would scan people’s social media pages, blogs, and other easily obtainable information and analyze the behavioral characteristics of every single person in the US and the rest of the globe to provide a predictive analysis as to whether or not that individual posed a security threat. Because of the use of biometrically enabled national identity cards, the purchases people were making could also be included in the profiles being generated.

  Once the parameters for the search were entered into the program, the system could immediately go to work providing real-time data of threats, including: their locations, who they were connected to, and a detailed dossier of the individual’s activity that met the program’s requirements, justifying them as a valid threat. Once a link to a known threatening individual had been made, a warrant for further investigation would be acquired from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Then the program would begin to go through the individual’s emails, phone calls, text messages, banking records, etcetera, until it had built a complete dossier of the individual for analysts and senior leadership to determine their next steps. Once activated, the Trinity Program would become the most complex and detailed profiling and surveillance program in the world.

  By 2039, biometrics had become a major part of the American economy and was a major component in reducing crime throughout the country. Through federal grants, The Department of Homeland Security had assisted cities and communities throughout the country in installing traffic and surveillance cameras in public places and buildings, similar to what London and other British cities had done. The network of cameras covered the vast majority of public spaces, making it easier to track the movement of suspicious individuals.