“The Eastern Alliance,” answered JP, the Director of the CIA. “Its signatories now include Russia, China, India, Iran, the ‘Stan countries’ of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Please keep in mind that a lot of these countries have had heavy Chinese, Russian, or Indian influences for many decades. Vast swaths of their economy are tied to India and China, who have invested heavily throughout the last thirty years in building roads, bridges, power plants, mining operations and other goodwill gestures. I also want to assure you, Mr. President, that by and large, these nations do not pose a real threat to the US or to the majority of our Allies.” He laid down the piece of paper he had been reading from on the table.
JP then added, “I wouldn’t be too concerned by these nations joining the East. The only countries that really pose a potential problem are India and Iran. We’re not sure what the Iranians may try to do with regard to Israel. I have been in talks with my counterparts in the Saudi Kingdom along with the State Department, and it does appear that they’re working closely with the Jordanians, Israelis, and the other Gulf States to hold Iran to the line and make sure they don’t try anything stupid. We’re hoping this budding Arab-Israeli alliance will help to keep Iran out of any major military activity in the Middle East.”
The President nodded, glad to hear some good news.
JP cleared his throat. “The Indians, however, are going to be a problem. Their economy is enormous, and they already have a large military. Although their army isn’t uniformly well-equipped, their front line units are very combat ready. Since they don’t have any threats to their border, they’ve been transporting several of their army groups to Russia,” he concluded.
Liam Greeson, the Chief of Staff, leaned forward. “And how goes our own coalition, the Global Defense Force?”
The GDF quickly became the United States’ new plan to replace the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance after multiple members had reneged on their support to the alliance and had ultimately been forced out. It had been slow going at first getting the idea approved by Congress, but now it was a race by State and Defense to get nations to sign on to defeat the Russians and Chinese and their new cohort of nations.
Jim Castle reached into his jacket and pulled out his reading glasses, which meant he was gearing up to answer this question. He opened a folder. “The formation of the GDF has been a bit chaotic at times, with some signatories expressing some concern over the direction of the war. I’ve managed to assuage their apprehensions for the time being, and we’ve secured the final main signatories. Even though they’re facing significant popular resistance at home, the United Kingdom has come around and will be a founding signatory of the new alliance. France has also signed, and to my continued surprise, has probably been the most proactive member of the alliance since the start of the war. They were a bit slow in recognizing the threat the Russians and Chinese pose, but now that it has been made clear, they’re all in.”
“Chancellor Hilde Schneider from Germany has also rallied her nation to the cause as well. It was almost a shoving match between them and France to see who would get to sign their name first to the agreement. All three of the countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula — Sweden, Finland and Norway — signed the agreement, as well as Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Italy, and, to our surprise, Spain and Portugal. Both of those nations had been kicked out of NATO, but after a lot of public anger by the populations in those countries and seeing the rest of Europe come together to meet this new threat, Spain and Portugal changed their tune and now they’ve joined the alliance.”
“Really?” the President interjected. He was a bit surprised at this change of course.
“Yes, Sir,” Castle answered. “Unfortunately, Greece and Turkey are still facing off against each other. It’s unclear if they’ll come to blows, but if they do, it’ll happen soon, so they’re both out.”
Jim paused from reading his list to look at the others around the table before continuing. “That covers Europe. The other nations that have signed on to the alliance are Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Brazil, Colombia, and of course, our brothers to the north, Canada. Privately, the Saudis, Jordan, Egypt and the rest of the Gulf States are with us but won’t formally sign on since Israel is a member. I’m confident that situation will change, though, as the Israeli-Arab alliance looks to control Iran. War has a strange way of creating blood brothers, and I suspect a fight with Iran will be a turning point for the better in the Arab-Israeli relations.”
“This is encouraging, Jim,” remarked the President.
“I agree, Sir, but I will caution you. While all of these nations joining our alliance sounds great, even powerful, please keep in mind most of these nations’ militaries are in even worse shape than our own. They’ve all been given a list of what types of units their military needs to form and troop numbers they need to reach along with timelines, but outside of the partners that are already actively engaged, it’ll be nearly a year before most of these countries will be able to contribute to the war.”
“Hmm…” said Gates, mulling that over.
Castle pushed forward. “I hate to harp on this point, Mr. President, but it’s just going to take time until all of the pieces are moved into place and ready. Until we reach that point, we need to focus on keeping the enemy off balance and reacting to us until we’re ready to finish this war.” If anyone was going to mobilize the country and alliance to war, it was going to be Jim Castle, the Warrior Monk, as he’d often been called.
The President’s expression turned from a smirk into a smile. “General Omar Bradley famously said, ‘Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.’ I think that expression really applies to our current situation. As you all have said, this war is going to take time to win — time to retool and build the necessary tools for war. It’ll take time to acquire the resources, train the workforce, and create the tools needed to win this war. With that said, I want every avenue pursued to aid us in that endeavor.”
He made a motion to indicate that his Chief of Staff should write down what he was about to say. “If we haven’t already done so, someone please get in touch with the logistics departments of Wal-Mart and Amazon — they have the world’s largest logistical networks. Let’s see if they can help us in both acquiring and producing the tools needed to win. Talk with Elon Musk about how we can increase our production capability and find the areas of space and cyber that we haven’t thought about utilizing yet and get his thoughts on it. If he’ll partner with us to help defeat the Eastern Alliance, then I want his help. The same goes with the CEOs of Google, Facebook, and Apple. We need our tech giants to help us in this struggle. They suffered during the nuclear attack in the Bay Area, and they have a vested interest in helping us win. Let’s reach out to our titans of industry and get creative on how we’re going to win this war. We have to put our differences aside as a country and people and rally around the flag. It’s time we focus on our true enemy, the Eastern Alliance.”
Gates spoke with passion and conviction. They left the meeting filled with a renewed fire.
Battle of Britain