The Iran War

by Jack Strain

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  Over the course of the next thirty minutes, American warplanes and missiles struck hundreds of targets throughout the entire expanse of the oil-rich desert nation of Iran. Navy-launched fighter-bombers were unleashing salvoes of SLAM missiles at military and industrial targets, Harpoon missiles were flying towards Iranian ships and patrol boats, torpedoes were being dropped in a dozen suspected spots throughout the Gulf, and the massive barrage of nearly eight hundred Tomahawk missiles was already striking targets in a dozen cities.

  Not only the Iranian military, but the entire world was also being given an abject lesson that the United States was angry and committed to a war unlike any the world had seen in three generations. Jihadists the world over spoke of the glories of martyrdom and the U.S. military was giving them their ticket to paradise.

  Chapter Twenty

  The President’s Address to Congress

  The sergeant-at-arms had already announced the arrival of the members of the Supreme Court and the president’s cabinet, and now his familiar loud, booming voice proudly proclaimed to the packed chamber, “Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States.”

  Every single member of the Senate and the House, regardless of party affiliation, along with invited guests rose to their feet as President Douglas J. Wolfe entered the floor of the chamber to cheers and powerful applause. The cameras caught the president pausing for just a moment at the entrance as he seemed to be taking in a rare sight. For the first time since 9/11, the American public watched members of Congress and senators speaking with one voice. Instead of acrimony and division, the five hundred and thirty-five members of Congress stood as Americans first and greeted their president in the nation’s hour of need.

  President Wolfe slowly made his way down the aisle to the main podium, shaking hands, accepting hugs and brief kisses on his cheek, and numerous encouragements of both sympathy and support. This controversial figure in American politics, considered by many to be the most divisive force in recent history, was suddenly elevated to something wholly different - his personal loss was the nation’s loss, his desire for revenge was the nation’s desire for revenge.

  More than two hundred million Americans were expected to either watch or listen to this address with hundreds of millions more around the world eagerly waiting to see what the Americans would say - what they would do. The winds of war were in the air, but now the speculation was at an end. So as missiles were flying and bombs striking home, President Wolfe reached the podium, shook the hands of the vice president and the Speaker of the House and then turned to face the chamber and waved for everyone to sit.

  The chamber came to an eerie silence as the president stood tall in his black suit and tie with the same simple white rose on his lapel that many of the members in the audience also wore out of respect. For a man who craved the limelight and usually came alive in moments like this, it was difficult not to notice the president’s grave demeanor, his drawn eyes, and the clear weight of responsibilities he now bore, let alone his tremendous personal loss. He closed his eyes for a second, looked up to the heavens, and whispered to himself.

  I’m so sorry, my Liliana, that I let you down. I miss you so much. Lily, this is for you . . . this is for you.

  “Mr. Speaker, Madam Vice President, members of the House and Senate, the first lady, and most importantly, you, the people of the United States of America, thank you for coming tonight on this very solemn and sad occasion. Four days ago, the world gathered in the ancient city of Jerusalem to begin a historic meeting, a meeting that was said to be impossible, a meeting to discuss a lasting peace in one of the oldest conflicts known to man.

  “We did not find peace on that day. Instead, the world watched in horror as one of the most deadly and evil acts of terrorism to have ever been inflicted upon a civilized world played out for all of us to watch. We saw the first use of a weapon of mass destruction by Islamic jihadists who were determined to spread death and suffering when the world longed for peace and justice.

  “I would like to ask everyone in this great chamber, all Americans, and those watching around the world to take a few moments of silence to pray to whoever is your God and remember the lives of those we lost days ago.”

  As already worked out with network feeds the world over, half the screen cut away and began showing images of those lost in the attacks. Some were familiar world leaders, media personalities, and other world notables while many more were security agents, film crews, soldiers, doctors and nurses, countless others, but the last image was that of the president’s own son-in-law and daughter. Hers was the last image on the screen before the screen cut back to a full shot of the chamber with many members clearly deep in prayer and some fighting back tears and a close-up on the president who was clearly struggling to maintain his emotions.

  President Wolfe could feel his eyes moisten, and the camera slowly zoomed in as he lightly dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief. Then he took a single deep breath, and suddenly his facial expression changed from sorrow to that of profound anger - almost rage.

  “My fellow Americans, I feel a loss unlike any that I have ever felt in my life. I grieve for my daughter, my son-in-law, for my grandchildren who no longer are blessed by their parents’ love. I grieve for the families of Secretary Gittleson, Ambassador Silverman, members of our diplomatic peace mission, Secret Service agents, so many lives lost. I grieve for every man, woman, and child of every race and religion who died on that fateful day. But most of all, my fellow Americans, I am simply tired of grieving the world over as one senseless, tragic death follows the other in this non-stop cycle of terror and violence. It must come to an end.”

  [Applause]

  “I have not come here tonight to this hallowed chamber, this shining beacon of hope and freedom to offer up yet another speech of hollow words and empty promises to end terrorism. Not tonight. I simply won’t do it. How much American blood and treasure has been spent trying to create a civilized world where all peoples and all races may live together in peace and free from the evils of man.

  “For decades, extremist Islamic terrorism has killed hundreds of thousands. We have valiantly tried to combat this scourge, but all too often we have fought these wars half-heartedly, constrained by self-imposed rules of war that have enabled despots like Syria’s Assad or religious leaders, like Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and numerous others to escape justice. My entire adult life has been spent watching innocent civilians die on hijacked airliners, bombings in cafes, nightclubs and airports, the tragedy of 9/11, hundreds of mass bombings; and now this week’s tragedy in Jerusalem.

  Now terror has personally touched me and my family as so many millions have been personally touched by terror over the decades. I remember watching the TV like millions of you are doing right now as President Bush declared a war on terror and boldly announced that nations of the world were either with us or against us. I remember cheering at the TV and yelling that it was about time. But how long did that last?

  “Remember how this country came together like no other time in our lives, but also think how quickly we lost that unity. How quick was the world to point fingers and heap judgment and scorn on the United States while our brave military was in the field of battle? How many years have we been in Afghanistan and still no closer to an end? How many men and women died on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria and countless other spots the world over and yet still there is no end to this madness?

  Here at home, how quick before Democrat and Republican, American citizens both blue or red began attacking one another, accusing the other of being a cancer on the body politic. We who claim the right to lead a free and just world have spent the past two decades spewing an ugliness into our own system. I, too, am guilty of playing my own role in this ugliness. I am not innocent. I helped fuel division. I spoke with scorn about my fellow Americans. I am the president of these United States but failed to unite us as one people. And for this, I am deeply ashamed.
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  “Like so many of you, my fellow citizens, I watched this week as the media displayed footage of one mass rally after the other. With flags flying proudly, men, women, and children are coming together as one people in a way that I haven’t seen since the days after our last great national tragedy on 9/11. I asked myself, and now I am asking the members of both parties here in this chamber, and I am asking all of you at home, why it took yet another tragedy to remind us that we are one people united in our shared values and belief in freedom and liberty?

  “Tonight and in all the days to come I swear to you that I will not be a man of a party, but a leader of one great people. A leader who has been given a great task: to rid the world of terror and to truly bring the light of freedom for all mankind.”

  [Intense Applause]

  “I am asking the members of this chamber for a formal declaration of war against all who engage or support terror in whatever form it may come. This my fellow Americans will be a true war on terror, unlike anything our enemies had ever seen. The American people in their righteous anger and might will lead the civilized world in this mighty crusade, and yes, I say the word crusade because this is not the ugly word from the Middle Ages. Unlike our enemies, we believe in the modern world with its modern values and virtues and refuse to be thrust back into the dark ages like our enemies wish to return.

  “When I say to the world that you are either with us or against us, these are not hollow words. They will be backed by the full power and might of the United States of America, and on this, I give you my absolute vow before God and the peoples of this world. To those who support the cause of freedom and peace, you shall have no greater friend and ally than the American people but those who seek to oppose us you also will have no greater enemy than the men and women of this great Republic. On this, I swear.”

  [Applause]

  “I am declaring now before the world that if you seek to engage in terror and kill the innocent, you are our enemy. If you seek to give refuge and political cover to these terrorists who have corrupted their religion, you are our enemy. If any company, bank, or institution of any kind seeks to profit from cooperating with these killers, you are our enemy. You will not be safe in your homes, your borders, or your boardrooms. The United States of America will no longer be bound by the rules of war that have long protected those who wish to kill and maim.

  “We know who you are. We are coming for you. There will be no place on this planet for you to hide, no cave or bunker where we cannot reach you. On this, I give you my word.”

  [Applause]

  “To show my words have meaning, tomorrow morning at nine a.m., American ambassadors the world over will be calling on heads of state. They will be handing each one of them a list. A list of every person, bank, company, or institution that American intelligence has confirmed as playing some role in either actual terrorism or the support of terror. The United States will no longer make a distinction between those who pull the triggers of the gun or bomb and those who provide the money, the material, or the support. You are all guilty and will now pay the ultimate price.”

  [Applause]

  “Right now, even as we gather here tonight American military forces are on the move and in harm’s way throughout the world. I have authorized our armed forces to launch Operation Avenging Angel. Its goal is to destroy the group responsible for the attack in Jerusalem, secure all remaining stocks of their chemicals weapons, and more broadly to punish those responsible for supporting terror around the globe.

  “What happened on Tuesday could not have taken place if it were not for the deadliest civil war of the 21st Century. Obviously, I am referring to Syria and the tyrant Bashar Assad who is responsible for so much death and suffering. This man is guilty of so many sins - from his cruel rule before the war to the hundreds of thousands who died at the hands of his barbaric armies supported by killers from Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards members. This is a man who dropped his “barrel bombs” and chemical weapons on civilians and caused the refugee crisis that has since driven thirteen million from their homes. He sought weapons of mass destruction and failed to control them, which allowed the so-called Avengers of Allah access to these deadly weapons.

  Up until now, he and those who serve his evil ends have escaped justice . . . until tonight. Your screens at home will shortly cut away to a recording of images taken within the past fifteen minutes from a U.S. military drone flying above Damascus. Assad and his henchmen have been living in a deep-underground seven-story bunker complex in a part of Damascus called “Assad’s Neighborhood.” Here they have been protected from the ravages of war while his people suffer, immune from punishment. But no longer.

  May the members please pull out the tablets that have been placed by your seats tonight to view what the world is now witnessing. Please, look at your screens and see America’s justice.”

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  The nighttime infrared camera of the Global Hawk flying high above Damascus was centered on a non-descript neighborhood not too far away from the Presidential Palace and transmitted reasonably clear images. Flying at twenty thousand feet, twelve F-15 Strike Eagles, each armed with two, 5,000-pound bunker-busting GBU-28 guided bombs streaked towards the bunker complex. A flight of F-16G’s had already taken out surrounding SAM sites giving the Eagle drivers a clear shot.

  Coming in at four different angles, all twelve planes had good releases and powerful bombs penetrated through the rooftop facades and burrowed through twenty feet of reinforced concrete, and then each bunker buster lit off their 3,500 pounds of AFX-757 explosives sending massive fireballs into the night skies, all captured by the circling Global Hawk. Inside the bunker complex, walls collapsed on themselves, gas lines exploded, hundreds were killed by the fires and shockwaves and collapsing structures. Far below, the Assad family and most senior higher command officials remained untouched. That lasted for another two minutes.

  Flying unseen were two B-2A Spirit stealth bombers from the 509th Bomb Squadron out of Whitman Air Base. They each carried two of the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the world. The 30,000 lb. GBU-57 M.O.P. or massive earth penetrator, capable of penetrating two hundred feet into the ground before its massive thermobaric warhead explodes. The first GBU-57 laced through a smoking crater created by two previous GBU-28 hits and carried deep into the base of the bunker complex before exploding creating a deafening roar and caused the already weakened entire left corner of the underground bunker to collapse unto itself.

  Three more massive explosions struck within thirty seconds of the first, and the resulting explosions caused the entire underground complex to begin collapsing onto itself as if some massive earthquake literally swallowed it into the ground, leaving an enormous hole in the ground and fires that would burn fiercely into the night. The Global Hawk caught every second of this deadly scene, leaving the world little doubt as to the fate of Bashar Assad and his entire regime. They could now be found in pieces at the bottom of the deepest hole in the city of Damascus.

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  The president put his own tablet aside and looked out to the chamber and gauged the range of emotions and expressions felt by everyone in the room. They along with everyone watching throughout the world just witnessed the execution of one of the most notorious murderers in the world. To say that this was unprecedented would be putting it mildly. The world had become accustomed to American drone strikes, but nothing like this. It had the exact effect that President Wolfe’s trusted advisor Baxter Davis said that it would. It was both awe-inspiring and frightening at the same time.

  You liked that, did you? Well, I’m just getting started.

  “I know, I know . . . that was perhaps not what anyone had expected tonight, but it was necessary. It was just, and it was long overdue. But, we are not done, my fellow Americans. The one country that I have not spent much time discussing tonight lies at the very heart of the evil of terror that afflicts this world. Ever since 1979, one nation above all others has use
d its oil riches, not to build a better future for its people, not to be a force for goodness and peace, instead the Islamic Republic of Iran has brought nothing but terror, war, and suffering.

  “Iran has been at the heart of terror networks the world over for four decades, and we know that it was one of their specially trained Quds Force operatives who was behind the attack in Jerusalem. Iran has supported hundreds of acts of terror over the decades and funded extremist groups like Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Al-Nusra in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, and their money and Revolutionary Guards have been found supporting the Boko Haram killers in Nigeria and Al-Shabaab pirates in Somalia.

  “So much death can be laid at their doorsteps…so many years of chants of ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Israel…,” death, death, death. And now these same mullahs have dreams of nuclear weapons to usher in a new era of even more terror and death to the world. I am here to tell you that we are now sending a message to the entire world that those who order death will now be taken to account. The Islamic Republic has used its resources and riches for decades to fund death. Well, now I have decided that Iran will be deprived of those resources and riches, and those hate-filled fanatics who ordered so much terror will now receive the same fate as Bashar Assad.

  “Now watch your tablets and screens once again. The first images are satellite shots taken an hour ago. Look at all the many cities of Iran brightly lit and basking in light from their electric grid that brings with it all that the modern age has bestowed upon us. Now, look at the same images taken fifteen minutes ago. I say to you that those who wish to live in the Dark Ages must now truly live in the dark. No longer will the riches pulled from the ground be used for terror abroad because now they will need it to rebuild their nation. Watch now as the video streams the opening salvos of Operation Avenging Angel.”