It would take a day to get through the Gulf of Mexico. He hoped the Atlantic would be a smooth ride.
Seated around the room were the executives of all the major media outlets in the United States. All of them were familiar with each other. They had worked closely with both the government and each other during the Korean War and each had an idea of why they had been asked to come today. After a few minutes, the President came in the room and took his seat at the table.
“Good morning,” the President started. “It’s nice to see you all again. I wanted to bring you all in to talk about how we should deal with something that is happening in Europe. Before I do, I am requesting that none of what we discuss will be made public. Like in Korea, we do not want someone to know what we are doing and what we plan. So I am asking you here for your advice and to help me with some decisions I have to make,” he said.
Brad Freeman from CBS News raised his hand, interrupting the President. “Mister President, are you asking us not to report things again?” he asked.
“Actually, I wanted to ask if that was necessary,” the President said. “Let me share with you what is going on. As you have reported, the Russians have, over a period of four years, re-annexed a number of former Soviet bloc nations. Using the excuse that they were looking out for the best interests of ethnic Russians, they have spread through the eastern parts of Europe. It started in the Ukraine and now it is happening in Poland. The Poles want no part of this and as members of NATO, are asking for help. Unfortunately, if Russia attacks Poland, the NATO nations will respond with force.”
“My God, that’s just how the Second World War started,” said one of the men. There were other murmurs around the table.
“You are quite correct, and that’s what bothers us most. Just like back then, our diplomatic efforts are going nowhere. We’ve been working hard on this, but nothing is jelling. For your information, I asked the Russian President for a summit so that we could discuss what is going on. We were turned down flat. I am afraid we don’t have many options left. I fear that in a short period of time you will be reporting on another war,” the President admitted.
The voices around the table were raised again as the men expressed their anguish. Then Bob Kelso from CNN raised his hand. “Mister President, my people have been seeing the same thing. Word is coming back to my offices of all the unrest and it appears to be planned occurrences. So if this is going to be, we need to come together like we did last time. From my point of view it worked very well,” he said.
“Not again,” screeched one of the men. “I will not be dictated to by a government! I have the right to report what I hear and know, and it is against the constitution for anyone to say otherwise,” he nearly screamed.
“Damnit Chaz, what part of this don’t you understand?” Kelso exclaimed. “We are getting ready to go to war and this man is asking our help. Don’t you remember the last time? This man gave us more information than anybody and then simply asked us not to report something without checking in first. We in this room planned out exactly what would be reported and what would be withheld as our part of the war effort. As I recall, the President didn’t ever tell us not to report something, just to hold the story until the actions were completed. Now I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t want our people killed because some reporter shot off his mouth at the wrong time and place. And one other thing,” he said pointing his finger at the man, “We found out loud and clear that the American Public were behind what we did. Since we are supposedly doing what we do as a part of the people’s right to know, then we have to admit that sometimes the public doesn’t want to know some things. If you or anyone else in this room decides to move otherwise, you may find out that the public may no longer support their news organization.” Kelso stopped a second and regained his composure. “Mister President, I found that the time we worked together in the Korean War was the most gratifying of my entire career. You were open and honest the whole time. Not once did I ever feel we had let the public down, and not once did we ever publish information that might hurt our people. I, for one, would welcome that relationship again. And that includes the fact that the First Cav and First Armored just left Galveston,” he said with a wink. “We’re holding onto that story,” he said smiling.
President O’Bannon smiled and shook his head. “Well, I would like to work together again, but during the last war, I found that in many cases you withheld stories on your own. Just like you did today, Bob, you assumed the responsibility and did the job yourselves. I was going to ask if you were willing to take that responsibility,” he said.
Brad Freeman shook his head. “No, sir, as you also saw today, there are some hotheads who just may not be ready to take that responsibility on. Let’s go back to what we did last time. We’ll call this office if we see anything and check first. I take it our cable and satellite outlets will keep our feet to the fire?” he asked with a grin.
The DISH rep nodded from his chair. “That’s right. Anyone breaking our trust will lose their contract, and I will be glad to tell the public why.” The other cable and satellite providers nodded in agreement.
The President threw up his hands. “And I was worried this might be a long meeting,” he said.
There was laughter around the table and one of the men raised his hand. “Mister President, would you mind filling us in on what is going on at present? It may give us a few things to watch out for,” he said.
The President nodded. “Good idea. Of course I remind you that none of this is to get out. Like the last time, we are getting a little sneaky. Maybe after I share what I have some of you will feel a little better about this cooperative effort,” he said. The briefing lasted a good forty five minutes. Once it was over, he took the time to thank each of the men and then he hung around and just talked. They had just re-formed a powerful team and getting reacquainted was more a reward than a chore.
“What a clusterfuck!” exclaimed Master Sergeant Ricks as he watched the drone students seemingly attack a group of camped soldiers. All of them had rushed in to take care of business, but there was no order to the assault. As a result, the same first ten people seen were hit by at least thirty different drones. The rest were left alone. Ricks turned to the Colonel in charge, who simply shook his head.
“What a mess,” the Colonel sighed. Officers shouldn’t use the same expletives the enlisted did. “Okay, how do we clean this up? This was just 100 people. Imagine an attack with over a thousand,” he said.
Ricks watched as things unfolded on the screen in front of them. He looked back at the Colonel. “Colonel, we go back to basics. Battalions, companies, platoons. We have platoons of twenty men run by a sergeant. Companies of ten platoons run by first and second lieutenants, then a battalion of ten companies run by a major. We assign each to a sector and run the drill as if these were boots on the ground. Each gets told where to go, then they march out. The sergeants tells their people where to go. The first lieutenants tell the sergeants and the Major runs a whole sector. We plan these things out and send them in again. It means hooking up some communications sets, but it’s only in one building. Hell, we’ve been running the army that way my whole career. No use changing it now,” Ricks said. “I’d even bring them all in on a briefing just before each raid. At least then everybody’s singing from the same music.”