"What bills? The anti-missile systems will require Congressional funding. The only thing they have to pay for now is strengthening the cockpit doors.", I said.
"They don't even want to pay for that, sir."
I said something that probably wouldn't go down well in a Presidential memoir. "United is just the front on this. If they can do it, the others will do it, too. We're only talking a few million dollars! Cheap bunch of bastards. All right. Let's see how they like playing in the big leagues. Call Greg Paulson over at the FAA back, and yank their airworthiness certificates, each and every one of them, for every bird in their fleet. Shut the bastards down cold. Now! Tonight! Tell them Greg is doing it on his own authority, and when they go up the ladder to you, back him up. They can complain to me when I get home. Let's see how expensive a complete shutdown is to the dumb bastards. When I get back, I'll play dumb, and then back you up."
I heard his voice catch. "Sir, they might not survive that. Let's be honest. There isn't an airline right now that isn't losing money. Between 9-11, the rising cost of fuel, and the new changes, some of them are hemorrhaging cash!"
"Norm, either you regulate them or they regulate you. That's how we got into this mess in the first place. Shut the sons of bitches down. As soon as we get back we will rush through an airline rescue package. I should have enough votes to ram it through. You and I both know it will be watered down, but we need to set the precedent that safety is more important than what they want.", I told him. "Meanwhile, get your staff together and write a quickie bill to help them. Go talk to the head of the House Transportation Committee, too. We can punch it through when I get back."
"Yes, sir. Understood. Just come back home before I get lynched."
"Thank you, Mister Secretary. I promise I won't pardon anybody if you get lynched. Feel better now?"
"Not particularly, Mister President. Good night.", he answered.
I hung up, smiling. Some industries around the country needed a wakeup call.
Our next day's itinerary went quite well. I don't know whether it was because Putin had taken a fancy to me or not, but he seemed to agree with my thoughts that we didn't need to antagonize each other, and that the radical Muslims needed to be monitored closely. I discussed my plans to create a counterterrorism agency to coordinate this, and suggested that when this happened, I would be interested in inviting Russian participation and help. I stressed that this was an international problem, not just a Russian or American problem. He countered by suggesting that when we created this agency, we could cross-assign agents.
After that we held a joint press conference, with Putin and me standing at twin podiums a few feet apart. We had prepared a very standard press release simply stating we had discussed a number of issues relating to both our mutual relations and concerns over international radical terrorism, and that our talks had been friendly and fruitful. Ari commented rather drily to both of us that none of this really mattered, since the only thing anybody was going to ask about was the judo competition last night. When this was translated into Russian, Vladimir laughed and nodded in agreement.
We started off with my reading a statement and then Vladimir reading a statement similar to the press release. The talks had been friendly and fruitful, and we planned to follow up our discussions over the next few months. Standard blah, blah, blah. Then we went to a question and answer period. As expected, ninety percent of the questions were about our visit to the judo club the other night. Some of them were downright silly. Who was tougher, me or Putin? Why didn't we fight each other? Why didn't my wife attend? Did that mean we were getting a divorce? Was this some sort of 'karate summit'?
I wasn't sure whether it was more hilarious or exasperating. I noticed Putin was getting a little peeved by it all, and not just by the American reporters. He had cultivated a certain persona as a 'fighting man of Russia', fighting and riding and hunting, all shirtless. Now it was biting him in the ass to an extent. Whenever we tried to bring the subject matter back to the actual things we had talked about, they would sidetrack us back. Eventually we ended the press conference and I commiserated with Vladimir back stage. He normally didn't get this much grief. His press was tamer, and Russia was tough on reporters. They printed what you told them to print or they ended up in a ditch somewhere. Investigative journalism was distinctly frowned upon in Mother Russia!
Israel was happily anticlimactic. It was somewhat less formal, and Ariel Sharon made sure to introduce Colin and me to senior people in the Israeli Defense Forces and Mossad, their intelligence organization. For Colin it was probably old hat, but it was new to me. I tried not to sound too stupid and kept my mouth shut. On the plus side, the Israelis had a very positive view about the way we handled Afghanistan and Al Qaeda. They preferred a very direct approach to such things.
I did find out that they were looking for any intelligence they could on Al Qaeda. We had killed a lot of bystanders when we took out their safe houses and city locations, but it seemed that we took out a lot of their senior cadre. Nobody knew yet if we had killed Osama bin Laden, but I vaguely remembered that had happened the first time, too. We never really knew until he eventually began releasing videotapes showing him inciting the faithful to violence. Even then we weren't sure until CIA analysis of the tapes showed they were new, and not just recycled stuff from the past. So far no tapes had surfaced, but it was still early.
On the plus side, there was definite evidence we had given the Taliban a death blow, at least in their current incarnation. The barbaric bastards had lost damn near everybody at senior ministry level and above, and most of the second and third tier players as well. Mullah Omar, the titular head of the Taliban, was confirmed dead in Kabul, along with the rest of the Kabul City Council. The Taliban were attempting to regroup, but they were basically a part of the Pashtun tribe, and were simply the largest minority in a nation of minorities. Otherwise they were a creature of Pakistan's ISI, which used Islamic fundamentalists and extremists to act against India in Kashmir and elsewhere. There were already reports that Pakistan was trying to rebuild them. Joy!
Sharon commented to me at one point that these were the people who invented the saying, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' Also he reminded me that when dealing with Muslims to always remember that they had invented the concept of taqiyya, where it was perfectly legal and moral for them to lie to an infidel if they felt it would advance the cause of Islam. It wasn't hard for them to justify a lie to us for any reason whatsoever.
Regardless, we needed any intelligence assistance we could get, always bearing in mind that the Israelis played a very deep game, juggling their interests against everybody else's, and there were always two or three levels at whatever they were up to.
One thing I mentioned to Colin and a few of the others on the way home was that we also had to take the Israelis with a grain of salt. They were wizards at using the hugely influential American pro-Israel lobby, and loved the current hard right fundamentalist Christian theory called Christian Zionism. Many fundamentalist Christians believed that before Jesus would come back for the Second Coming (and all the various Rapture variations) it was necessary for the Jews to triumph in the Middle East. Only then would Jesus return, the Anti-Christ would be thrown down, and all the unbelievers would be thrown into the Pit. Of course, if things got to that point, the Jews would go into the Pit as well, since they were also unbelievers. The Israelis took a rather tongue-in-cheek approach to all of this. They loved anything that would keep the American crazies firmly on their side, and since they didn't believe in Christianity, the Rapture wasn't real anyway. Ari gave a wry smile and agreed with my commentary.