General Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, answered, "No, sir, it means the Navy broke their boat. It happens, probably in the turbine or drive train assembly. My understanding is that repairs are being made and they are already underway, but at a reduced rate of speed. They will be in place by tonight."
"And if we need to do something before then?"
"Then the Marines on the Fort McHenry go in. They have air cushion landing craft and helicopters for transport, and some of the helicopters will be rigged for fire support. The Cole also has guns and helicopters. We will also be pursuing very limited results. Unless you say otherwise, our goal will be to protect the embassy and rescue the staff. We have the resources ready to do that, sir."
I looked around the room. "Is that the goal? Rescue the embassy staff and let the locals kill each other? Or does anybody want us to do more?", I asked.
"What about the other embassies in the city? The French? The Belgians? Anybody else?", asked Condi.
"We need to consider it, Mister President.", added Colin. "If nothing else, it racks up some serious Brownie points with our allies. None of them have any ability to get in there until the middle of the week."
I saw Myers and Smith nodding at that. John and the others chimed in also, in agreement.
I was on the verge of saying something when there was a sudden stir at the other end of the room. An Army major wearing a headset began saying, "Repeat that! ... Is that confirmed? ... Hold for one..." He looked over at us and said, "We are getting reports from the embassy that mortar fire is now hitting the compound ... Wait, what..." The last was said into the headset as his eyes scanned a monitor. "The fire has stopped for the moment, but casualties are reported ... no dead ... repeat ... two light wounds ... hold, please..."
"Who are you talking to, son?", I asked.
"I have Ambassador Myrick on the line, sir!"
Colin Powell sat upright at that. Normally the Ambassador would report to him, so things must really be turning to shit. "Let me talk to him, Major."
"Please hold for the President.", the major said. He hit a button and a phone in front of me rang.
I picked it up. "Mister Ambassador?"
"Mister President, this is Bismarck Myrick, the Ambassador."
"Ambassador Myrick, I gather you have your hands full. How bad is it?", I asked.
"Yes, sir. We just got hit with some mortar fire, 82 millimeter, I think. We took half a dozen rounds. Nobody was killed, but a couple of people caught some shrapnel.", he reported. He sounded a lot calmer than I would probably have been.
"Mister Ambassador. You are authorized to take any and all precautions. Break open the armory and make sure everybody is prepared. This has gone on long enough. I will be sending in some Marines shortly. Get everybody ready to go. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir. We haven't seen any hostile troops yet, but we're keeping a watch out. We're picking up some foreign nationals, Europeans mostly. I authorized the guards at the gate to let them in.", he reported.
Well, that made up my mind about rescuing other people. I couldn't leave them behind, like the pictures of the last helicopter out of Saigon. "Take care of them, Ambassador Myrick. Help is on the way."
"Thank you, sir." The line clicked off at that.
I set the phone down. "Well, you heard that. I don't think we need to discuss the response." I looked over at Myers. "Get them moving, General. Oh, and while we're here, General, General...", I said to the two generals. " ... I just want to let you know that Colonel Withers here gave me an excellent briefing on Saturday. Really, the entire staff did a fine job. I just wanted to make sure I said thank you, and pass that along." I stood up. There was nothing else to do now on my part, and micromanaging things from thousands of miles away was a terrible idea. "I think we are done here for now. Colin, keep me informed on the Ambassador and his staff, and anything else from our allies. General, a moment of your time privately, please?"
The others began filing out, and I buttonholed General Myers in a corner. I lowered my voice so that it was private, and then said, "General, I don't want to delay your handling of this. I'm not sure if you know, but my son is on the Fort McHenry as a Marine. I'm not exactly worried about him, but it has been pointed out that if an enemy were to know the son of the U.S. President was around, they would make very strenuous efforts to kill or capture him, probably endangering the lives of those around him."
"Yes, sir, that is very much true, I am sorry to say."
"Now, Charlie is getting out at the end of his hitch, and I have explained this to him. He is not happy, but he understands. I am not sure about whether anybody else would understand. If word came out that he was being held back by his father, it would be devastating to him. It wouldn't be good for me either, but I'm a big boy. I can take the heat if I have to. An accusation of cowardice or favoritism would haunt Charlie the rest of his life.", I continued.
"I understand, sir. Mister President, it isn't going to be that much of a problem. By this time tomorrow we'll have another 3,000 Marines off the coast. For today, we'll simply have a few platoons secure the embassy. If the rebels can delay until tomorrow, we won't even need the Fort McHenry and her Marines.", he replied.
"We can't let anybody know about this. It would destroy him.", I repeated.
"Understood, sir. I will handle it."
"Thank you, General." With that I headed to my office to deal with everything else that had piled up over the weekend.
I didn't give Liberia much thought for the rest of the day, as I was tied up in budget meetings and plans for the next fiscal year. At lunch I was quietly informed that the embassy had been secured. I just nodded and went about my business. Charlie was safe on his boat, the Marines had landed, the embassy was secure. By tonight the evening news would be reporting that Monrovia was safe for Americans or some such bullshit. Ari told me that none of the networks had any offices in Liberia, but that they had access to freelance stringers with camera equipment. We were sure that the Marines would be on the news tonight, either as heroic liberators or jackbooted thugs, depending on the leanings of the network. The Europeans, especially the French, tended to take a very distasteful view of 'American interventionism'.
Through the afternoon the situation deteriorated. The Liberians were waging a three sided war on each other, and God help anyone caught in the middle. We began to get reports, not from Ambassador Myrick, but from other sources that foreigners were being targeted, and killed. Myrick was getting as many of them to the embassy grounds as he could, and then sending them out on Marine helicopters to the Fort McHenry. The embassy itself was secure, though under intermittent attack, and he had directed the Marine commander to send out patrols to other embassies and bring back any personnel who wanted to evacuate.
I talked to Colin Powell mid-afternoon. I commented to him that I thought Myrick was doing the right thing, but I wondered if he had the legal authority to give the Marines orders. I got an answer back that surprised me. As 'Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary' Bismarck Myrick was the President's personal representative and spoke with the President's voice. There was actually considerable precedent to taking command of local armed forces, sometimes for good and sometimes not. At least our guy knew which end of the gun the bullets came out.
By the time of the evening news, Liberia had managed to make top billing on most of the networks, and a local stringer for ITN, an English independent network, was reporting about widespread violence, and that American Marines were landing and taking control of most foreign embassies, evacuating noncombatants and family members, as well as any other white faces they could rescue.