Prelude To War: World War 3 (Steve Case Thriller Book 1)

by Phillip Strang

  Chuck and Howard were the main coordinators in New York. It was primarily an American operation, so it was expected that an American would be in charge, Archie understood this.

  A special area had been set up at the Command Centre. As with all operations, it had to have a name. For this one it was to be ‘Operation Buzz Saw.’ Why they needed such unusual names always confused Archie, but there it was. Maybe, they felt that Buzz Saw instead of ‘Taliban elimination exercise’ would make everyone feel calmer, more detached, less emotional. It made no difference to Archie. He knew what it was, regardless of the name.

  All the targets were given code names, nothing highly original, just five digits. The first digit would be the elimination day; the second would refer to the location, the third to the operative and the fourth to their rank or otherwise, the fifth was there to show if they were foreign, Pashtun Pakistan or Pashtun Afghanistan.

  They were all marked up on a massive electronic board, it looked like a large chessboard, but the pieces being eliminated were not an impassive wooden or marble figure, they were living, functioning human beings.

  Day one started early; the first scores on the giant chessboard were coming through. It was amazing that impassive as the people were, they quickly became excited to see the runs on the board, the pieces being removed. It was like that for the first few days, until some of the people monitoring the progress in the Command Centre started to realise the gravity of what they were actually monitoring. The mood started to become sombre. Some were removed if it became too much for them to deal with, others handled it fine, although no one remained upbeat and excited. This was mass-slaughter, it almost felt like genocide.

  Day one concluded. Of the thirty targeted, twenty-eight were being reported as removed, their marker on the Command Centre board turned to black.

  One of the operatives had not reported in. They would give him thirty minutes and then his family would be moved to safety. Tahir Munir a native of Karachi, he lived in an apartment out towards the beachside suburb of Clifton, knew the city well. His family were easy to find. The Taliban if they had taken him would quickly extract any information, their methods were very persuasive. To them, his family was equally culpable. They would not hesitate to execute them as a lesson to others. After the agreed time, his family were extracted. Ninety minutes later the Taliban came. They executed the inhabitants on either side of Tahir’s apartment. The message was still given.

  Tahir was to be found dead in a ditch out towards the airport two days later. He had been tortured, and summarily shot in the head. He was the first casualty of many.

  Day two dawned, the objective was to deal with the two that were missed on the first day, and then focus on the foreign fighters. This was going to prove more difficult. Already some of the Taliban were waking up to the fact that certain persons were missing. Two hundred and eighty were targeted for the day. It was not possible to deal individually with them, and wherever there was a group, an appropriate plan was in place, a well-placed grenade if possible. If they were in a vehicle, then the Taliban’s own tactics with an improvised explosive device, an I.E.D placed under the road. Otherwise, a drone would be called to their vicinity with the coordinates being relayed by an operative on the ground.

  As the days progressed, it was going to become more difficult. The rank and file were becoming increasingly confused, and there were signs that some were starting to dissipate, go back to their villages, they would survive.

  The second day concluded with another two hundred and twenty out of the way. There was a concern in the Command Centre that the rates were too low. Certainly, they had removed a substantial number of the leaders, those who could give orders and make plans, but the numbers remaining were still too large.

  The third day had been slated for the training camps. There were two in Waziristan, one down near Quetta, and two in Afghanistan at some distance from Kandahar.

  They were all being staked out, and the number of possible Taliban was around eight hundred, close to five hundred were on the list for removal. It was not going to be possible to send in the undercover operatives this time, it required more drastic action.

  The operators who were staking out the camps were able to give precision coordinates which would be fed into the AGM-114 Hellfire precision missiles that were mounted on to the General Electric’s MQ-9 Reaper drones. It was accurate and deadly but with the heavy loss of life and the risk of collateral damages, not the ideal solution.

  Archie could see the need although many people in the Command Centre felt repugnance at such large numbers being killed in a single action. The result dictates the action, which was how Archie saw it.

  The significant loss of life now was minor in comparison to the massive disruption of many lives in the future. The inability of countries and communities to function, to go about their normal business due to the cloud of terrorism was being removed. Machiavelli would have appreciated and understood Archie, even if there were others, who felt his approach too costly regarding the dignity of human life. Archie put such thoughts out of his mind. This was to be his last operation; it was going to be the most successful of his career.

  Drones had always been controversial, resulting in their limited use. This time, there was to be no limitation. The third day, there was the removal of nearly seven hundred.

  The plan Archer had put forward to utilise special operatives, and Russian helicopters with civilian markings were to be used on several occasions. Not so much with the training camps, the drones appeared best. The helicopters were used in the same manner as was used to take Bin Laden out in Abbottabad. Important persons, priority number one on Archie’s list who proved difficult to remove. The helicopters would come in with their personnel and resolve.

  As areas were cleared in Afghanistan, then rapid deployment of forward operating bases for the helicopters and the Special Forces was implemented.

  The weeks passed, the numbers climbed, some operatives failed to survive. The extraction teams had done a great job, but they had not managed to protect all the families. At least half a dozen families had been eliminated, and in one instance where they had managed to get the family out from a small village to the north of Kandahar, the Taliban slaughtered every man, woman, and child, about two hundred persons.

  It had been by the tenth day that the Taliban became fully aware of what was happening. Confused, disorientated, leaderless, the majority dispersed into the general populace. The foreign fighters attempted as well, but they had to communicate, their language doomed many of them. It had not needed Operation Buzz Saw, the local population had suffered under Al Qaeda, and here was a chance for revenge.

  Day twenty-one and the number of selected Taliban removed amounted to over three thousand. The collateral damage had been significant, probably close to a thousand. At the conclusion of any activity, and when these areas were deemed safe, there would be an influx of assistance to help the people affected by the deaths of their loved ones, the destruction of their properties and their livelihoods. They would be hostile, but these were a people used to suffering. They would accept even if the helper had recently been responsible for the current situation.

  Chapter 25

  The Russians were monitoring port activities in the USA. They had seen that a large number of cargo ships departed in early April for parts unknown. It was clear to the Russian as to their destination. They had been able to obtain copies of the loading manifests, and they indicated machines and materials consistent with a planned activity in Afghanistan.

  It was the first Tuesday in May when the ships began to arrive in Iran; it was also the day when the Russian Military advanced their troops. The World clearly saw the American intent, and America could bluster and deny as much as they wanted, but no one would believe, the evidence was clear and undeniable. There were still three countries to be resolved before Russia would be sitting on the border of northern Afghanistan. How it would conclude was unclear to the USA, its allies
and the Russians.

  Kazakhstan was the first to feel the incursion. High levels discussions between the Kazakhstan and Russian governments continued. Russia had still not thought through all the pros and cons, it was purely a necessary reaction that needed to be conducted. The USA could not be allowed to move into Afghanistan, regardless of their reasons. A measured response was required. Too much military could be seen as an overtly offensive action, too small would be discounted.

  On their previous incursion into Afghanistan, they had averaged ninety-thousand troops, but hesitancy from the Politburo in Moscow to supply additional troops had made them ineffective. It was a hopeless situation for the Russians at that time.

  What numbers were required this time? They did not necessarily want to control the south of the country, which was not where the great wealth was to be found. The Taliban could have that, as long as they left them alone. They would need Kabul, but Kandahar and Jalalabad were of no great concern.

  They had lost up to fifteen thousand soldiers during their last visit to the country, and they certainly did not want to revisit those numbers. The mention of two million Afghan lives lost did not feature in their calculations.

  It was clear that a similar number of troops as before would be required to hold a smaller area than had last been attempted. The decision would be an initial eighty thousand troops. The mining personnel could come later when it was secure. There was no need for the Russians to pretend this was about economics. The Russian mentality did not need to go through such an exercise of pretence. They would take the areas they wanted and subdue anyone who was not compliant. That was the style they had adopted in the past, it was the style they would adopt now.

  The final figure decided for personnel and military hardware to move to the border was to be as follows: Eighty thousand personnel, two hundred and seventy tanks, one hundred and eighty armoured vehicles, three hundred and thirty artillery systems, eighteen multiple-launch missile systems, one hundred and fourteen combat aircraft, ninety combat helicopters, plus some additional Navy ships in the Black Sea.

  The aircraft for the interim would be kept to the north of the Kazakhstan border. They were only one thousand kilometres away, and they could always make their presence known by flyovers of the Afghanistan border. This was felt to be a suitable response, and with that level of manpower and military hardware, it was felt that the U.S government would rethink their venture to re-enter back into Afghanistan. This was not to be a major issue to organise; the only issue was as to how the USA would respond.

  A large number of countries from the former Soviet Union were now clearly within the economic domain of Russia, and it had been achieved without the need of an aggressive military occupation.

  With the escalating situation, the American and Russian military and political leaders were keeping in very close contact. They had all seen where this was heading, and they did not want the worst-case scenario. It was very professional, very determined, and very measured in how they spoke and communicated to one another.

  It was the most difficult of situations, preparing for confrontation, for war, while trying to keep calm and moderate communication open with the other side.

  The decision had been made at the Kremlin in Moscow. A move to cross the border of Kazakhstan was agreed. Russia did not want to fight their way to the border with Afghanistan, and they did not want to be depleted and exhausted before they arrived.

  It was inevitable they would be seen as invaders intent on the subjugation of the bordering countries. It was fully realised that all of the bordering countries that had been under the yoke of the Soviet Union would mobilise their troops and make threatening stances towards the Russian border.

  The Russians had decided that if these scenarios occurred, they would have to tough it out. In matters of foreign affairs and relations, it was never as simple as it appeared. Enter one country in aggression, and then, there is another half dozen threatening back. The impact on the economies of all the countries, the years of engendering good diplomatic and economic relationships are dissipated in an instance, and the spectre of Russian aggression and the cold war, become awakened in the minds of the people who remember back to those times.

  The discussions with Kazakhstan were always destined to failure. Even if they agreed to allow civilians with mining equipment through, there was no way that they would agree to the Russian military. History was too fresh in their minds for them to believe that Russia was only protecting them and the adjoining countries.

  They had talked and debated for a long period of time, but it was obvious that Russia intended to move through. The niceties and the good words had come to no avail.

  No country on any continent would allow a foreign power to move its military through on the pretence that they were going to protect them. Who could trust anyone under these circumstances?

  Russia would be forced to move forward. They would hold to the agreement that they had proffered. They would go through a narrow corridor and not leave any military inside the boundaries of Kazakhstan.

  What could Kazakhstan do? They could not stand up to the might of the invading army. They had to let them through and trust to fate or divine intervention. The border was breached with minimal disturbance. The gate was pushed down by a truck laden with food for the troops heading to the front. It was symbolic and agreed. At least, Kazakhstan had not opened the gate, and they had shown resistance. Purely token, but the significance was important.

  Russia advanced through Kazakhstan and then on through Uzbekistan. They set up a similar situation with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan but in this instance, they would be keeping their military in these countries as they discussed and would establish a fifty kilometres buffer on the northern border of Afghanistan and stay there. Tajikistan was further to the east and outside of the immediate theatre of confrontation.

  Russia was careful to keep to their discussed plans with these three countries. Their ultimate control of these countries would be slower, better engineered and with stronger management of the whole exercise, but reluctantly here they were.

  How this would play out was unknown. Russia hoped it would not be with violence and chaos. The ending was still with the Americans to write.

  Russia would conduct its war games, endeavour to make its troops appear menacing and determined. The Warlords and the Afghan Army would be doing their best to look the same on their side of the border. They would, however, look like a collection of farmers armed with pitchforks by comparison.

  Chapter 26

  The National Security Council convened in Washington, the president in the chair. The other mandatory attendees: the Vice-President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Defense Secretary, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Director of National Intelligence were there, as well as the highest-ranking military officers in the USA.

  George Hampshire, Archie Smyth, and Fred Bull were there as special invites. Fred would have preferred to have had some more of the original think tank at the meeting, but it was deemed not appropriate. Fred had updated on the think tanks deliberations on the Russia question and how they felt the scenario should be played out. It was obvious that it was going to be a close call on the potential for military action before the final agreement with the Russians was made.

  The president addressed those gathered, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached a critical juncture in our operations. The Russians are now at the northern border of Afghanistan, and the Taliban exercise is in full operational mode. We were aware at the commencement of the plan, that to take control of the resources in Afghanistan would lead us into dangerous and uncharted waters. We have certainly found those waters now.

  ‘We knew that Russia would ultimately head south to claim the resources. We could never place a time on that Russian action, but it would have come, and we would have had to respond.

  ‘We have precipitat
ed Russia by our actions. It is now for us to control their response. We need to lay in place plans that will satisfy Russia, and will avoid their reclaiming of the countries on their borders. They will not retreat back from Afghanistan without ensuring military control of the countries they have just moved through. Eventually, it will flow on to the other countries closer to Europe. This must be avoided at all costs.

  ‘The focus today is to be solely on Afghanistan. For this, we have asked George Hampshire, one of our advisors on military matters, Fred Bull, who is leading the think tank, along with Archie Smyth, who has formulated the Taliban elimination plan, Operation Buzz Saw, to be present.

  Archie was to lead off with a clear update as to where his exercise was at the present moment. The previous time he had been at this meeting, it was in a non-participatory role while the president had pronounced the official command for his plan to move forward.

  There was a concurrent activity to the north, and whereas Russia would normally have been the primary focus, it was not altogether surprising that the Taliban elimination was to get equal focus.

  It was now the twentieth day since his last visit, and the results were good. There would be eight more days before the president would declare that Archie’s plan was concluded. Media coverage and the criticism from the humanitarian groups and other Islamic countries were too severe to be ignored. It was commendable that the president had held firm in his commitment to the agreed day of conclusion, day 28.

  The presentation from Archie was to be factual. The results were well known to all present, and with the additional, if not a little surprising, possible willing assistance of the Pakistan military it appeared as if the Taliban were to cease to exist. Fundamentalism may well remain in isolated pockets of the society, but it would be out of the periphery and of no concern.