The Last Crusade

by Ira Tabankin

  “Excellent. Get her back in service, we can send her out without radar if that’s the hold up, we’ll have an Aegis ship with her twenty-four, seven, she’ll be her eyes. Use consumer computers to speed up her refit. Find whatever ships you can pull back into service.”

  “Already in process. We’re moving available troops to the ports where they’ll board every ship we can dig up. We’re taking over cruise ships to transport troops like we did in the Second World War. We don’t have any troop ships, we never thought we’d have to move tens of thousands of troops again.”

  “Yeah, the geniuses thought air power and smart bombs would win the next war. They said we don’t need a lot of tanks or troop ships, they said we won’t need an Army anymore. They said everything can be done from the air. I’d like to round up all those morons and place them on point. Let them see how well a war can be fought without boots on the ground. This is the price we pay for planners who grew up playing video games. Everything is a press of a button.”

  “Most of the planners were killed in D.C.”

  “They got a too-easy out, I would have liked to see them suffer for what they did to us. I’d like to have sent them in with the first wave.”

  Chapter 6

  The Pope sits at the head of the conference room table,

  “Generals, now that the war has started, what are the next steps?”

  A staff Major looks at General Green, who nods,

  “Your Holiness, Generals, we have one hundred and eighty-two heavy bombers in the air to attack the Caliphate. The B2s are targeting the Caliphate’s air defense radar sites that the initial missiles may have missed, once these are taken out, our bombers will hit their surviving power plants and communications hubs. The second wave will be fighter bombers which are going to drop hundreds of tons of dumb bombs along our kick off locations; we’re hoping to set off the millions of mines we know they’ve laid waiting for us. We plan to bomb our attack coordinates for two weeks. We have a third wave forming which will attack the Caliphate’s air bases to block their fighters from attacking us. As long as the Caliphate doesn’t strike our air bases again, we’ll be okay.”

  Pope Francis II looks up, “Son when will our troops step foot on Caliphate soil?”

  “Your Holiness, in one month. Many of our troops are still assembling, a lot of our armor is in transit to the jump off locations. The troops have to be trained how to work together…”

  “Son, one month isn’t going to train them on how to work together. Either they’ll accept all of the holy forces as brothers and sisters or they won’t. You can’t order them to accept others, you can’t quickly overcome their feelings that have been drummed into them their whole lives. They will have to learn to trust the others by their actions. They’ll learn to accept and work with the other armies. It’s the only way this is going to work; we don’t have the time to build a new single combined force.” Pope Francis pauses to sip from a glass of water,

  “Tell me, what are the odds the Caliphate will use nuclear weapons against our landings? Can they kill all of our holy warriors before they complete God’s mission?”

  “Your Holiness, we estimate a fifty percent chance the Caliphate still has WMDs and will use them over their own soil.”

  “The Mahdi may not care about the lives of his people, but I do. I care about all life. I don’t want to see our brave young people vaporized. You must locate and destroy their ability to use them, you need to destroy their storage sites and launching sites before one of our soldier's steps foot on their land. I can’t face having to look into the eyes of the young’s loved ones and tell them we knew there was a fifty percent chance this could happen. Would you send your son or daughter into a battle where they have a fifty percent chance of being vaporized?”

  “Sir, then why are you leading a new Crusade which is, in reality, a Third World War? Nuclear weapons have been used and most likely will be again. Your Holiness, what are your orders? Do you want us to focus on locating and destroying their WMD or focus on winning the war and bringing peace to the Middle East?”

  “Son, I’m trying to stop the fourth and fifth ones from happening. I’m sure you remember what Einstein said about the Third World War.”

  “Yes, sir. I remember, he said he didn’t know what weapons would be used in the Third World War, but the Fourth would be fought with rocks and stones.” Said a pacing General Green.

  “I’m trying to save us from fulfilling his prophecy. General Green, if the Caliphate strikes us with WMD, how are you planning on responding?”

  “Your Holiness, in kind, with overwhelming force. They should have only a handful of weapons left, we still have thousands. If they decide to let the genie out of the bottle again, we will unleash ours. They will think the Israeli attack was a pinprick compared to what we’ll unleash on them.”

  “General, make sure they know that. If they strike us with one weapon, strike them with ten, make them pay a horrible price if they use WMDs. I’ll send a personal message to the Mahdi telling him if he uses WMDs we will respond in a ratio of ten to one. I’ll tell him, I will order the destruction of Mecca and Medina if he uses WMDs against our troops. I want you to drop leaflets warning the people in their holy cities of their impending destruction. If the Mahdi uses MWD, twenty-four hours later we will destroy their holiest cities, followed by the destruction of the Temple on the Mount. None of their holy sites will remain.”

  The room is silent, no one expected to hear a man of God talk about nuking cities. The silence is broken by General Green,

  “Sir, do you think he’ll believe you? Frankly, I wouldn’t. I would assume you’re bluffing.”

  “I hope he’ll listen, but I don’t know if he will or not. I’ll pray for guidance.”

  “Your Holiness, I suggest we leak that we’re keeping at least two missile submarines on alert to take out their cities. If it looks like they stole the information, they may believe it more than if you tell them. I don’t think they would believe you, their intelligence services will believe the information if we mark it TS and use a system we know they’ve already breached. We know they’ve breached one of our confidential networks, we use it to feed them false data. We can arrange for the orders to the submarine captains be posted on the hacked network.”

  “Excellent idea.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll issue the orders. I’ll split the targets so one Russian and one American boat each fire at each city so both countries are invested in the attack.”

  “General, I know it’s very early, but do you have an estimate of our potential losses from the war?”

  “Your Holiness, we’ve gamed every aspect of the battles we can, our estimates come out all over the place. It depends on how effective our air strikes are, the defense they put up, and if their people take up arms against us. Most of our intelligence people think the Caliphate’s people will take up arms and fight us either in their army or as insurgents. Our losses increase directly with the level of insurgency we face. We’ve improved our tactics since the second Gulf War, but, we’re still at risk to attacks by armed civilians. Unlike fighting an army, we can’t open fire on civilians until they fire at us.”

  Pope Francis shakes his head, “I pray you’re wrong. Having to fight their population is the worst possible outcome. The causalities on both sides will be too high.”

  “The biggest problem with fighting an insurgency is, they teach the younger generation, when we believe we’ve beaten one generation, the next one attacks us. We could end up fighting for many years. Even then, unless the people themselves change, as long as one Iman survives to preach hate and violence we’ll be fighting and shedding blood.”

  “General, that’s not a very good outcome. I pray you can develop a better plan so we don’t end up bogged down for generations.”

  “So do I, Your Holiness.”

  I won’t keep you any longer. May God go with you.”

  “Thank you, your Holiness.”

  The military
officers stand as Pope Francis II leaves the conference room. Silence fills the conference room as the officers contemplate the potential of having to fight a multigenerational insurgency.

  @@@@@

  At 0300 thousands of bombs fall along the border of the Caliphate; cruise missiles strike power plants blacking out three-quarters of the Caliphate territory. The Mahdi sits in his underground bunker watching the bombing and laughing.

  “They think shutting off our power will make us come begging for peace? Our people are used to living in war zones, they are used to living without power, we are not like the soft, fat West. We should thank them for showing us their attack plan. Let them spend millions of dollars and thousands of tons of bombs blowing up sand. It will make them feel like they are doing something. When they begin their land attack, I’ve decided to let them cross the border, let them move inland a kilometer, they’ll think they’re on a cakewalk. They’ll assume their bombing plan worked, they’ll become overconfident. Their security will grow lax; their troops will lose their edge. When they think they’ve figured everything out, then our troops will surface from our underground bunkers. We will hit them from three sides. We will crush them and push them back into the sea. When their Armies are defeated, we will move forward taking over Egypt and pushing the Jews into the sea. When the last Jew is dead, we will move into their homes and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Let them play with themselves dropping bombs wherever they want, they’re not going to harm us. They won’t touch our cities so let them have their fun. The Pope is soft; he won’t want the world’s media screaming about dead civilians. Don’t kill their press, we want their media to be on our side. Their own media will support us. They’ll report that thousands of their tanks are invading us, the poor Arabs. Their own media will undermine their will to fight.

  Let their press help lull them into overconfidence, just before we kill them all. When we strike, we’ll capture their press, turning them around to see and report our side, they’ll report what we tell them to. Relax, don’t fear, they will most likely spend at least thirty days dropping bombs wherever they want. Issue a few press releases saying how much they’re hurting us. It will lull the infidels into thinking we’re losing before we surface and kick their ass. Remember Allah is protecting us.

  Can you image their chain of command? Americans, Russians, Jews, and Arabs all trying to work together. They don’t even speak the same language. Their rifles use different ammo, they’re going to need a logistics train that will be impossible to secure and maintain. Our advantage is Allah is watching over us, he’s prepared us well for the coming battle. He forged us in the hot sands while he allowed the fat, lazy infidels to suck at their mother’s fat tits. Our people are hard, they are soft. It’s impossible for us to lose, every one of our people will be armed. They’re not facing our army; they’re facing our entire armed population. In the Second World War, Admiral Yamamoto told the Japanese high command not to invade America because there was a gun behind every blade of grass. Here, we have an RPG under every grain of sand. Don’t worry about the upcoming battle. Sit back, relax, every bomb they drop on the sand is one that’s not available to them to drop on our people.

  We will begin attacks against their logistics train in a week. We will attack and destroy their convoys of bombs before they can be loaded on planes.”

  @@@@@

  Day after day, thousands of tons of bombs fall on the Caliphate. Most of them without any response from the Caliphate. Every few days the Mahdi releases a press release and pictures showing a hospital, or orphanage blown up. Images of small dead bodies lying in the sand flood across the internet. Pictures swamp the web showing a baby food factory destroyed, five pharmaceutical companies and twenty-five schools destroyed by the Pope’s bombing. The western media eats up the Mahdi’s press releases. They begin blaming the Pope for the deaths of millions of peaceful Muslims. The media uses the Caliphates own propaganda against their own nations. The West’s media quickly becomes willing stooges for the Mahdi who laughs not believing how easy it is to manipulate the western media. He enjoys watching the West’s news broadcasts showing the images his propaganda department created.

  On the twenty-fifth day of the bombing campaign, Pope Francis II asks General Green to see him.

  “General, we’re losing the propaganda war, the media is helping demoralize our people who are still suffering from the nuclear attacks. We are treating hundreds of thousands for wounds they suffered in the strikes. We have tens of thousands of college students who a month ago supported us and were joining our army in record numbers, now, they’re rioting against the war, they’re using slogans from sixty years ago. “Hell no, we won’t go.” And “No war for oil.” We need to accelerate the battle and show the people why we’re fighting or we risk losing their support. We can’t afford to wage a war the people don’t support. It’s the mistake your people made in Vietnam. We can’t succeed if the people back home are protesting us. I’ve received hundreds of requests from bishops asking me to find a way to make peace with the Mahdi.”

  “Your Holiness, I’ll see what can be done to speed up the invasion.”

  “My son, don’t call it an invasion, call it a Crusade to save the people from Satan.”

  “My Holiness, I’ll get on it right now.”

  “Please hurry. Ask your staff to find a way to turn the young around.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Thinking, there’s really no way we can speed up or change the timetable at this point. Things are just going to have to play out as they are. Changing the timeline now will only get more people killed.

  @@@@@

  The Mahdi tells his staff,

  “I think we have five to ten additional days of bombing to get through before the invasion, I think we should start our attacks tonight. We haven’t responded to their attacks; we’ve lulled them into thinking they’ve hurt us so much we can’t respond. It ends tonight.” He looks at the communications clerk,

  “Give the order to our field commanders. They strike tonight!”

  “Yes, Holy One”

  Messages are sent to terror groups waiting for the Mahdi’s order to strike fear into the infidel’s hearts. At midnight the attacks begin. The Mahdi’s plan wasn’t to simply strike the Crusaders forces; his plan is to bring the war to the Crusader’s homes. He seeded the Crusader’s countries with terror cells who waited for his order to attack their soft underbelly. His plan is to strike where they’re the weakest, their infrastructure. When the cells receive the Mahdi’s order they spring into action, they poison reservoirs, truck bombs explode in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge and three bridges that cross the Mississippi River. Rail yards and switching stations are destroyed. Ten hospitals are attacked by cells running through the halls firing AK47s at the staff and patients. Other cells attack electrical transformers and telecommunication switching stations. Two cells are stopped when they attempt to attack nuclear power plants. Automatic rifle fire kills ten people driving past the plants. Twenty cells attack train stations in Europe, thirty train stations in Russia are attacked. The last attack is planned for the Mall of the Americas, the largest indoor shopping mall in America.

  Twenty terrorists armed with hand grenades, pipe bombs covered in nails and AK47s race into the Mall. They begin shooting everyone they see, they toss their grenades and pipe bombs into large department stores. At 12:30 two terrorists stand in front of the food court, each firing three full magazines into the crowd enjoying a Saturday shopping. By the time local police arrive, over five hundred people lay dead in the Mall. The terrorists leave pipe bombs in delayed timers behind, these explode killing twenty-two first responders. The terrorists leave in ten different cars, the passenger opens their window, randomly firing into cars along the freeway. Cars and trucks flip over, cars crash into others closing freeways and surface streets further delaying first responders from arriving at the Mall.

  Other cells attack Piccadilly in London, the dining area of five cities in
Europe are attacked by drive-by shooters.

  Panic is driven deep into the people. Millions are afraid to leave their homes; they stay home from work. Trucks stop delivering products, being afraid to of drive-by shooters. Shopping malls are empty, people are afraid to go into enclosed spaces. The economies of the West are in free fall. Trains across Russia close until armed guards can protect the children.

  Pope Francis II is angry at himself for not being prepared for the attacks against the people. He knows the attacks are working, people won’t go to work, they won’t shop, economies are starting to crash drying up the money to support the Crusade. He goes on international television to remind everyone that the Crusade is to kill the leaders behind the terror attacks. He reminds the people around the world, they have to move forward with the Crusade to stop similar attacks from taking innocent lives.

  The Pope receives a messenger from America who informs him the American governors have decided the country must have a civilian government. They’ve agreed to hold new elections in sixty days, the messenger asks Pope Francis II to hold off any military action until the new American President is sworn into office who then become the Commander in Chief.