by A. J Tata
They all stood when the president entered, then sat quickly when he waved his hand at the group. The chief executive sat at the head of the table with the vice president on his right and the national security advisor on his left. Stone was next to the vice president and across from Sewell, the CJCS, and Frank Lantini, the CIA director. The chiefs of staff filled the other seats, with Meredith awkwardly positioned at the other end of the table, providing a weak counterbalance to the president, who was opposite her.
“I know almost everybody,” President Davis said in his smooth Southern drawl, looking at Hellerman, who smiled and stood.
“This is Ms. Meredith Morris. She’s an analyst, is it, with Bart Rathburn’s group?”
Meredith stood, bashfully.
“No, sir. I’m his special assistant. I handle a broad range of issues for Mr. Rathburn.”
“I bet,” the Air Force chief of staff whispered loud enough for most to hear, prompting a scowl from the president.
“Everybody’s got to start somewhere, Ace.” The president smiled.
“Okay. Let’s proceed. The situation, as my national security advisor has advised me, is this: The Abu Sayyaf has taken control of the Philippines, President Cordero is in jail, Secretary Rathburn and two others are hostages.” The president went down the checklist as if he were grocery shopping.
Meredith winced when she heard Matt’s name fall into the “others” category.
“We have a Special Forces team on Mindanao and an infantry company on Luzon. We lost fifteen women, some military and some civilian, on an airplane at the Manila International Airport. The Japanese have arranged for us to use Subic Bay Naval Base for the next two days as an airport of debarkation only. No ships, is that correct?”
“Yes, sir,” Sewell responded. “That’s a good summary. It’s also important to let you know that we have developed a joint task force under the command of Admiral Dave Jennings; he’s with Pacific Com-mand. Right now he’s got the majority of a light infantry brigade and division headquarters in Guam, a Marine expeditionary force moving south from Okinawa through the East China Sea, and a naval carrier group steaming from the Indian Ocean. They should be in the South China Sea in two days. We’ve got the fighter and bomber wings at Guam on alert. And, of course, portions of the Ranger regiment are waiting on the airstrip in Guam.”
“Okay, but we plan on a simple extraction of our personnel, correct? I mean, we just start flying airplanes in and taking them out. Right?” the president said. “I can see no reason for becoming militarily involved in the Philippines unless we can’t get all of our people out. I still want to focus on Iraq and Afghanistan as the main front in the Global War on Terror. I don’t want anything to divert our attention there.”
Meredith was convinced that he passionately believed what he was saying.
“We want democracy and market systems in the world, but not at the expense of American lives. While we prefer democracy, but communism is no longer our enemy, and last time I checked, these rebels were really communists just trying to hook on to the Muslim thing. So, it’s like Cuba suddenly saying, ‘Hey, me too.’ So, if these communists cum Islamists want to have it, then let’s find a way to contain it and get after the real threat.”
The president looked around the room and continued, “The point is that we will be able to use other forms of power to influence whatever regime is in control of the Philippines. We should let the Philippines go through the growing pains of revolution, assisting them in ensuring human rights and economic prosperity if possible.”
Communism? Meredith was certain everyone in the room was having the same thought. Where is he getting that from? Sure, they were communists twenty years ago, but Islamic fundamentalism has always been an issue in the Philippines. Meredith leaned back in her chair as if blown away in slow motion. And what about the Japan angle? Hasn’t anyone mentioned that to the president? If not, I wouldn’t want that ass-chewing afterward.
Sewell looked at Stone, motioning for him to take charge. There was something in the exchange that piqued Meredith’s curiosity. What was it? A knowing look? A familiarity? After all, they were counterparts. Davis also saw the interchange and asked the secretary of defense to respond.
“Sir, there has been a development that warrants our discussion in this forum. It significantly muddies the waters if our intelligence turns out to be true,” Stone explained, looking at Lantini.
“Go ahead,” President Davis said, kicking back in his chair with his hands behind his head and briefly resting against the nearby wall that made the room so cramped.
“We just received an intelligence report from the Special Forces team in Mindanao that they captured a Japanese auto executive jogging.”
The group chuckled, unaware.
“This executive, it appears, had been in Mindanao for six months”—Stone paused, looking at the rest of the group—“operating a massive assembly line making tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, small arms, and ammunition. The whole operation’s been going on nearly two years.” Stone stopped, then added the stipulation: “According to the report.”
“What!” McNulty, the Air Force chief of staff responded. “That’s bullshit!” He had served as the commander of the Thirty-fifth Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base in Japan.
“All we know is that we got the spot report through about ten different parties,” Stone said, “but I brought Meredith here to discuss some of the background and even some of the implications.”
“Really, Bob, a secretary? I’ve heard of sleeping your way to the top, but this is ridiculous,” McNulty retorted.
“I resent that,” Meredith said, angrily. She stood amidst the all-male gathering, tucked her hair behind her ears, and glared at the general, who turned red. She did not need his harassment, and she was certainly not there for the prestige or to get a job. She wanted to help. She had the answer and she knew it. President Davis was about to speak, but Meredith began by slapping her notes onto the table.
“Pardon me, Mr. President,” she said, the president motioning for her to continue, smiling at her brashness. “But that little spot report confirms what our intelligence has been missing for the past two years.” Lantini glared at her as she picked up a stack of papers stapled together and passed them around. “I mean, it’s bad enough we get our jockstraps handed to us on Nine-eleven, but it’s about to happen again.
“In these packets, you’ll see copies of newspaper articles that discuss Japanese mining activities in Mindanao. The next page shows Japanese mining imports remaining the same over the period of alleged activity. The next page shows Japanese oil-tanker activity in the Davao City port. And the last page is a newspaper article concerning an oil find on Palawan Island, Republic of the Philippines.”
She tossed another stack at McNulty. “These papers show Japanese economic statistics. Declining population plus declining trade plus declining resources equals declining economy.”
With dramatic effect, she said, “When your entire security environment revolves around your economy and your ability simply to buy protection from others, our shift toward the Middle East and a reduction in economic growth combine to form a severe threat to Japan’s national security.” She paused for a breath and let the men thumb through the packets. When the president finished reading, she continued.
“So what the Japanese have done is to exploit the Abu Sayyaf revolution. They produced weapons for them, giving them more of a chance to overthrow the government—”
“Missy, why didn’t they just attack the Philippines if that’s what they want?” McNulty whined.
“General, if you’d ever read Sun Tzu, you would know that the ultimate form of strategy is to win without fighting,” she said. Meredith had taken a military theory course as part of her political science curriculum at Virginia Tech and had read Sun Tzu along with Clausewitz’s On War, which now made a superb doorstop in her closet. “So why not arm the rebels, stage a show of force in the East China S
ea, ask the U.S. to watch the pending conflict between China and Taiwan, let the coup happen, then step in with tanks and helicopters to subdue the country?”
Stone thought to himself, Holy shit. Has she been talking to the Rolling Stones? How much else does she know?
“Sounds a bit far-fetched to me,” Lantini said, looking at Stone. Meredith knew that as CIA director, Lantini, who during his heyday was an impressive college linebacker at Boston College, would feel upstaged by her conclusions based upon simple open source research.
“I don’t know,” Rolfing, the Marine comman-dant, replied, “let’s hear her out.”
“Well, everything I said is true up to the point of what happens after the coup.”
“Why would they let Americans be killed. Wouldn’t that jeopardize this plan of yours?” McNulty commented dismissively.
“It’s not my plan, sir. The Abu Sayyaf, like Al Qaeda, are very decentralized. They probably didn’t get the word or just didn’t care about hurting Americans. I mean, how many of you knew we had an infantry company in Subic guarding ammo, or a Special Forces team in Mindanao?” Meredith asked.
Stone wanted to scream: Know! Hell I sent them there. You’re carrying my water and doing great. Keep going! He glanced at Ronnie Wood, who had a pensive look on his face, and winked.
“You’ve got a lot to learn about talking to superiors, young lady,” the Air Force general said.
“And you’ve got a lot to learn about listening when you’re wrong, sir,” Meredith responded, fully expecting to be asked to leave the room. Davis saved her.
“She might be right, you know,” the president said, taking control. “We need a way to verify this.”
Stone picked up on the cue quickly. “Sir, we’ve located the ships that Meredith identified as going into the Davao City port and supposedly leaving with oil or minerals. They all are suspiciously anchored just off the Luzon Strait. Talking with Bill here, I thought we’d send some SEALs in to board one of the ships and see what’s on them.”
“Good idea,” Davis responded. “What if Japan really is trying to pull a fast one on us? What do we do? What’s our new strategy? How does this compare to the threat of Islamic terrorism and its potential nexus with weapons of mass destruction?”
Meredith leaned forward, thinking President Davis asked a good question. Had the 9-11 attacks opened other seams for Machiavellian statecraft, seams for which they may not be prepared? Meredith believed it all came back to the perennial issues of economics, resources, and culture, exacerbated previ-ously by communism and currently by the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. In the Global War on Terror, allied relationships were shifting, like the earth’s tectonic plates, bound to create a rumble, or God forbid, a full-blown quake.
Only things were not so clear, Meredith knew. Officers and statesmen trained in the Cold War era were unsure of how to proceed. She wondered if they could set aside preconceived notions to deal with the obvious, though sudden, threat? It was sounding to her as if Davis was asking the right questions and guiding his foreign policy staff in the proper direction.
And what about Afghanistan, where it all began? That was Matt’s issue all along, she remembered.
CHAPTER 64
Secretary Stone had been watching. He looked directly at the president, who was seated next to Vice President Hellerman and Frank Lantini, with Saul Fox and Dick Diamond behind him. Chairman Sewell was next to Lantini and in Stone’s line of sight. As Stone looked, he noticed Ronnie Wood return his gaze.
What’s he thinking? Stone wondered.
The entire premise had been that the actions in the Philippines had to occur in order to create enough military movement to make rushing into Iraq logistically impossible.
Indeed, the Rolling Stones had released the glider, and it was flying strong, creating the effect. Many were beginning to question the drive to Iraq and whether they needed to forestall the massive military buildup against Saddam Hussein and focus more on the global transnational threat of Al Qaeda.
If the China-Taiwan tension gained more traction, and if the Philippine situation was not resolved in the next couple of days, then the Rolling Stones would have a chance at presenting a fait accompli to the neoconservatives without losing their power base, while appearing entirely logical and practical to the American people.
Win-win for everyone. That was always the Rolling Stones’ goal.
Restore a patriotic fervor, crush Islamic funda-mentalism, and keep the focus on the endgame: a stable, secure, and prosperous America.
Takishi, Charlie Watts, had been a Harvard Business School classmate of Bart Rathburn’s. So Takishi was the logical choice as he began negotiating billion-dollar deals with countries such as China. He had the power, as did they all, to start an insurgency in the Philippines, like a brushfire. They wanted just enough to get the attention of the world so they could say, “Look, over there, a fire.”
So the question was, how to keep the Philippine insurgency to a manageable level given all that had occurred—a containable insurgency. It appeared that with the deal Takishi had cut, the urgency would subside in a couple of days. That wouldn’t be enough to divert attention away from Iraq.
He looked at Dick Diamond and Saul Fox, sitting next to each other, whispering to one another, trading notes. Like puppeteers, they always sat closest to the key decision makers in the room, so their presence could be felt.
He flipped his notebook annoyingly on the table, wishing for a cigarette and gaining a bothered look from President Davis, his friend. So he stopped and looked down. As he stared at his black notebook, he saw a yellow sticker protruding from one of the pages. He opened the book slowly, half-listening to the conversation and saw his pencil scratching from the ambassador’s visit yesterday.
The big letters “KOREA” leapt off the page. Yes, he thought. Takishi was sending him a signal that the Rolling Stones needed more fodder to enhance the illusion of chaos in the Pacific. Stone looked up, smiled inwardly, and said, “Korea.”
Amazed, everyone turned in Stone’s direction.
“Korea. That’s it. Korea,” he said, shaking his head with the appearance that he had figured it all out.
“How’s that?” Sewell asked.
“The ambassador, you know, Kai,” he said, looking at the president, “came over yesterday with an envoy from Mizuzawa.”
Lantini shifted in his chair and glared at Stone. What’s he doing? Lantini thought. How can Stone be so reckless as to suggest that?
“Why didn’t they ask to see me?” Davis inter-rupted.
“I don’t know,” Stone said. “They probably did not want to bother you and were asking for our assistance in the Philippines and Korea. They’re worried about China and Taiwan, and now they’re getting rumblings from North Korea.”
“They really presented that to you as an issue?” the president asked.
“Yes, sir. It makes sense. North Korea keeps shooting missiles over Japan, and China is always testing in Mongolia or somewhere. So I’m thinking the Japanese government developed these weapons to protect themselves from the growing Chinese and North Korean threats. My guess is that they felt like they had to do it in the Philippines to get around their constitution. You know, article seven—”
“Nine,” Meredith interrupted and wished she had not. McNulty cut a mean gaze her way. Stone looked confused. Another Oscar, baby!
“Anyway. My reasoning,” Stone continued, “is that these ships are sort of a floating weapons storage site, you know, prepositioned stuff, ready to react to some threats. Post-Nine-eleven, it might not be such a bad idea. They’ve got security challenges all around them with China, North Korea, and now this situation in the Philippines. I mean, can we really do it all?” It was a risky strategy, and Fox predictably pounced on the unprotected pawn in the debate.
“Perhaps the flotilla of tanks could be used as a balance of power in the Pacific so that we don’t have to commit sizable U.S. forces there, allowing us to proceed
with our levelheaded strategy of removing Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction from Iraq,” Fox explained.
“Balance of power,” Diamond added.
“Now that makes sense,” McNulty said, finally finding something he wanted to believe.
“So the choice is to deal with the Pacific or invade Iraq? What happened to grand strategy? Why can’t we make it an all-inclusive strategy? Take a look at the Islamic terror threat as a multinational threat, much the way we viewed communism, and develop the equivalent of a containment, or destruction, doctrine that informs our decisions?” Diamond continued, then looked at Stone.
Now that made sense, Meredith thought.
“If the choice is between the two,” Fox said from his back-row seat, “then there is no question that Iraq, with nuclear potential, must be handled promptly.”
Jagger saw that Ronnie Wood was staring at him, wanting him to take the lead and counter Fox.
“Think about how many nukes are in China and North Korea, Saul. There’s as much of a terror nexus there as we might find in Iraq,” Stone said, picking up the ball for Wood.
“But what we are really talking about is some minor revolution in the Philippines. The China and North Korea arguments just don’t hold water.”
Everyone looked at President Davis, who said, “Let’s give it twenty-four hours and see how this plays out.”
Fox slammed back in his chair, his feet dangling above the floor like a schoolchild’s.
Still dodging the bullet, Stone thought. That glider is still hanging in the air, buffeted about a bit, but still hanging, flying, creating events. Real events.
“Mr. President, I recommend that we keep this all tightly under wraps, which will of course preserve our strategic flexibility,” Lantini, the CIA director said.
About time you said something! Stone thought.
“Of course,” Davis replied, smiling at his old friend Bob Stone.