The Rangers Are Coming

by Phil Walker

  “We estimate the Iranians will attack along this route,” he put it up on the screen “We believe they will attack along a 20 mile front with 20 divisions and their motorized elements. They are expecting to use the artillery in advance of their ground assault, but we have all of their emplacements plotted and will use our own artillery to neutralize them just before the ground troops begin their assault. I’m positive the Iranians have no idea they are walking into a trap.”

  “When the retreat begins we flank their army in a pincher and link up at the center. We will then simply wipe out their army and follow up with airstrikes on their entire military infrastructure located around the country.”

  “Any questions?”

  “I wish I could say I understood everything you said in your briefing, General,” said the President, “I’m sure Arcadia took it all in. I guess the only question I have is this, if the Iranians really send a million men across the border, how many will be killed?”

  “All of them,” said Compton.

  “Oh God,” said Susan.

  “We’ve been pleading with the Iranians for a month to call off their invasion and have told them that their losses will be horrendous,” said Arcadia. “They just don’t believe us.”

  “We’ll record a complete record of this operation from the beginning to the bitter end. It will be shown on television worldwide. We think it will be very instructive to help people understand how terrible war actually is.”

  “Not to mention bringing home the line ‘The Rangers Are Coming’ to graphic reality,” said the President.

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  Washington, D.C.

  Video receivers were on all over the United States to see the Ranger operation in Iran. Nobody had ever seen the Rangers in action. The same was true for the rest of the world. The Rangers just had a mystique and a reputation. None of the countries of the United Nations, who ordered the Rangers to battle, had ever seen them.

  Arcadia and President Moore made live, real time coverage available for every country in the world. Not all the people would see it, but the leaders certainly would.

  Kaiser Wilhelm II and his senior military staff were grouped around a large, plasma screen that showed very clear high definition pictures. They watched as the massive Iranian army poured across the border into Turkey. Wilhelm’s practiced eye told him that there were at least twenty divisions in the initial assault. He wondered where the Iranian artillery was. He got his answer as the scene shifted to the masses of artillery batteries behind the lines in Iran. Suddenly they begin to blow up. Wilhelm could not see the source of the fire, but it was devastatingly effective. The advance Iranian divisions were on their own.

  Suddenly Black Hawk gun ships were flying along the Iranian line spreading death. Ranger artillery opened up. The rounds did not hit the ground, but burst above the Iranians mowing them down by the thousands.

  Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles moved into the thickest concentrations of Iranians and left the battleground littered with bodies.

  Iranian troops who were still in formation suddenly found themselves surrounded by Chinook helicopters from which Rangers flew out and closed with the Iranians. Their weapons were deadly in the hands of the camouflaged Rangers. They moved with astonishing speed. Wilhelm saw one Ranger take two rounds directly in the chest and he didn’t even slow down.

  The gunships, artillery, and clusters of Chinooks with companies of Rangers repeated the maneuvers over and over. In some cases, the Rangers fought hand to hand with the Iranians. They were all short bloody fights with the Rangers performing complex personal movements that were almost faster than the eye could follow.

  The slaughter went on all that day, all night and all the next day. The Rangers literally wiped out the lead divisions and were now carrying the fight into the Iranian rear and all the waiting divisions. The pictures cut away now and then to see gunships and strange looking flying craft, using rockets and bombs destroy the factories where the arms had been built. A dozen Chinooks flew in from high altitude, over the steel mills and the big military complexes and dropped bombs on them that were the biggest explosions anyone in the world had ever seen. Destruction spread out from these explosions for nearly a mile.

  In three days, there was nothing left for the Rangers to fight. The Iranians used their radio stations to signal that they were surrendering and for the death to stop. General Compton ordered an immediate ceasefire.

  For the next week, the Rangers planted millions of mines across the access to the main oil fields and pumping stations of the Iranians.

  An Iranian secretary of one of the departments, the only living senior official in the entire government, met with General Compton and heard the surrender terms. The United Nations would supply humanitarian aid to keep the civilian population from starving. The army and all military installations were disbanded and closed. The curtain of steel surrounding the oil fields would be monitored. Any person coming into the field would be killed. All of Iran’s oil reserves were confiscated by the United Nations and used to provide reparations for the damage caused by the Iranians to Turkey and to the Ranger force, for a period of ten years. Moreover, the Iranians would be required to clear the battlefield and dispose of all the bodies.

  The entire world had watched and seen the most lethal military force in history in action. The devastation, firepower, and destruction the Rangers could inflict was now a known fact. The personal effectiveness and precision in which the individual Rangers could function became the stuff of legends.

  The final tally turned out to be a death toll for the Iranians of approximately 1 million men and all their equipment. The Rangers had lost 115 dead and 257 wounded.

  For the Iranians, the strangest thing of all was a huge cadre of men and machinery moving into Iran and constructing an airport and a highway all the way from Basra to Tehran. When the construction was finished, thousands of American citizens poured into Iran with food, clean water, medical supplies, and doctors. They all wore armbands with a Red Cross on it. The only Farsi they could speak was “Please, Thank You, How can I help, and We are sorry for your loss.” When they were asked why they were doing this, the answer was always the same, “Allah has commanded us to render aid, treat you with kindness, and respect.” A great many of the first responders were women and they did not hesitate to tell the Iranian women the conditions under which a majority of the women in other countries lived.

  The Americans rebuilt the government buildings that were destroyed. They constructed two new and very big power plants, and a pipeline of natural gas was tapped in the oil fields and brought in to power the plants.

  It took two years to complete the work, and to the credit of the Iranians, not a single American was ever attacked or abused, despite the fact the Ayatollahs screamed the American invaders should be killed and thrown out of the country. The public could clearly see that the Americans were not invaders, but angels of mercy. The power of the clergy was broken and the resulting secular government that took charge made it clear that the clergy’s job from now on was to tend to the religious needs of the people and stay out of the government.

  When the work was completed, the Americans left without ceremony or fanfares. However, they’d made many friends and the country was clearly better because of their efforts. Crowds cheered them as they departed

  The United States returned to the quiet neutrality that had marked their existence since 1770. There was one very large outcome to the relief effort that the Americans had done in Iran. Other countries, struggling to pull themselves out of poverty, disease, and a lack of modern improvements, began to ask the United States for a repeat of the humanitarian effort accomplished in Iran. President Moore talked it over with the American people and a referendum was held to find out if there was an interest in doing this. It represented a kind of violation of the neutrality that was stitched into the minds of all 200 million citizens from the Panama Canal to Dutch Harbor in Alaska, so it was not a matter to be approach
ed lightly.

  Susan Moore consulted Arcadia on the subject. “I did the Iranian relief effort for entirely different reasons,” she said, “it was just one more way to keep Islamic Terrorism from getting a place to start. It, frankly, never occurred to me that it would produce an outcry from third world countries for this kind of aid.”

  “It’s not without precedent, you know,” said Arcadia. “Somewhere in your old world history books you must have run across an effort by an American President to do exactly what is being asked. It was called the Peace Corps and it was a stunning success from the beginning. We would just give it a lot more firepower.”

  The referendum by the voters of the United States was overwhelmingly in favor of establishing a Peace Corps.

  The President took the proposal to the next meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations, now 88 nations strong. The United Nations was a true force in the affairs and politics of the world. With the partnership of the United States and the clear means of backing up their decisions, national governments routinely came to the United Nations to solve disputes and to referee issues when one country had a problem with another country. The final arbitration by the United States was seldom employed. There were few countries or people that would go back to the chaos of the previous century. The United Nations was perfectly happy to continue into the future with the stability of America’s steady grip.

  The General Assembly considered what to do with that part of the world that had thus far been beyond their reach, The Pacific Rim, principally, China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, minus Burma and Thailand, who had joined the United Nations. The hands-off policy adopted by the European countries beginning in the 1870’s, toward other countries had left a huge vacuum in China and Korea. They had been mostly isolationist themselves. China was still ruled by an Emperor, as was Japan with a strong group of Shoguns, or feudal lords, which fought ceaselessly with each other. They had sailed into the 20th century with big populations of very poor people and a ruling class that liked it that way. The only nationalism China had contemplated was a massive invasion of Russia. All thoughts of that had dissolved when the Chinese watched the Rangers in action in Iran. Of course, they never disclosed that such a plan was being deliberated.

  When the United States proposed a Peace Corps to render aid and assistance to poor countries, and asked if they could expect some help from other modern countries in their noble effort, the General Assembly approved the plan on the spot, put the United States in charge of implementing the details and recruiting volunteers.

  Susan Moore was pleasantly surprised at the large number of people from other countries who signed up to help. With the help of a staff of experts, some of which were Arcadia’s, she started mapping out a plan of training, logistics, and decisions on what should be provided to each country, based on their needs.

  Arcadia had cautioned restraint, “Be careful what you give these people. They aren’t ready for computers, cell phones, and video players. I would send in an advance team with leaders from their country and inventory their needs. That’s what you provide. Make sure not to do the work for them. Work with them. When some fellow comes up with an idea things would be better if his people had such and such, that’s when you make it available. Small steps. Don’t give them a tractor when what they need first is a good shovel,”

  The initial advance teams went out to the countries who had asked for assistance. Arcadia breathed a sigh of relief when China and Japan joined the group. It was only 1920, plenty of time for everything to go wrong.

  There were 50,000 volunteers, willing to donate two years plus of time, from countries outside the U.S. Arcadia was happy to see a nice contingent of Iranians. They started shipping them over in converted cargo carriers with 3,000 passengers per ship.

  In the United States over 150,000 people had volunteered. They carved out a space for a big camp in Nevada. It was pretty barren, but close to water, power, and one of the big underground shuttles. They threw up clusters of Quonsets’ big and small for quarters and services, and the training began. Everyday more people arrived and soon the Peace Corps camp was a bustling enterprise.

  Within a month, teams were heading out to some of the most remote places on earth. The Chinese contingent was actually going to be ten teams scattered out over a hundred square miles in the province of Guilin in the south. Chinese officials had done a good job of clearing away the bureaucratic underbrush, so that the flow of supplies and equipment could flow freely. The farmers had irrigated their terraces of crops in the same manner for generations. It was a system that worked. However, the team set up one of the small, mobile power plants, capable of providing enough power for a village of 300. They replaced the bicycle type pumping machines run by hand with a rotary wheel, filled with large scoops and running all by themselves, the farmers stopped resenting the encroachment of their time-tested ways and embraced the new technology. Soon the village was a veritable beehive of industry and innovation. When the time came for the harvest, the yield was three times the average. Similar results had been achieved in the adjacent villages.

  The Peace Corps movement gained steam. The Europeans, who once competed for colonies to dominate and exploit, now competed to see how much good they could accomplish in underdeveloped countries. The explosions were in China, Japan, and Korea. Peace Corps teams from all over the world flooded those countries. The practical, pragmatic Chinese government had never been influenced by Communism and raw socialism, since it had never developed in Russia or other countries. It was very hard for them to object to clear progress in all areas of their lives, despite the fact it came from foreigners.

  They learned fast and among the first things they found out when they stuck their heads out the holes they had hid in for centuries was the fact of the United States of America. They learned that this country, the biggest in the world, had been neutral for nearly 200 years and had developed a society with wonders beyond the most impressive dreams imaginable. They learned America freely traded these wonders, fairly, with any country that wanted it. The prices of these commodities were reasonable to a fault. They learned America only asked in return the materials, natural resources, and products, which were in abundance within the borders of the trading country. America never interfered with the internal politics of any country.

  One of the most notable characteristics of the Americans was their unshakable faith in God. Simply by using the examples of Jesus’ life and applying love to all situations, the Americans found themselves planting churches all over the Pacific Rim.

  Arcadia could hardly believe the rate at which the Chinese were embracing Christianity. Once, the movement started, it grew so quickly the Chinese started sending observer delegations to the United Nations. President Moore made sure that the delegations were quite large and included the most influential people in China. They got much the same treatment as the Europeans had received 50 years before, and the effect was equally as profound.

  When the Chinese experienced the totality of the American society and its endless marvels, they realized how far behind they were. After an intensive month of observation, travel, mixing with the ordinary people, visiting the centers of research and development and seeing how all of this was applied to a steep curve of progress, the Premier of China asked for a private meeting with the President Moore.

  Susan Moore expected this request, and anticipated the nature of the agenda the Premier had in mind. It amounted to, “How can we acquire all you have, and how much will it cost?”

  The Premiere came into the Oval office and bowed low before the President. She was already around her desk and interrupted the Premier in mid-bow, instead shaking hands with him and smiling, “I realize your bow is a sign of respect and gives me honor, but it is more than I require. I much prefer we speak with one another as equals. Please be seated and we shall have some tea.”

  The President poured the tea with her own hands, and then sat down. At 57 years old, she was still a strik
ingly beautiful woman. Her lifetime of public service and 25 years as President gave her a gravitas that was palpable.

  “Why don’t you just tell me what you want for the Chinese people?”

  The Premier was very impressed with the insight and directness of President Moore. “I believe I should ask, how much of your astonishing world can be acquired by China?”

  “An excellent question,” said Moore, “We have many, many years of experience in delivering improvements to the quality of life of the world’s people. It has been our practice to provide assistance to people only at the rate in which they can understand and apply it to their lives on a daily basis. We could certainly transform all of China into a duplicate of America, but the shock is simply more than your people can absorb. We did not achieve all you have seen overnight. We had to take small steps to allow our own people to grow accustomed to some new innovation. It will be the same for you.”

  “That sounds very wise to me,” said the Premier. “The question I have is what do you expect from us?”

  “What do you expect for yourself,” countered Moore?

  “Your counsel, your advice, and your wisdom on how China can assume a place of respect in the world.”