“Sir, I’m worried about what they’ll do if we don’t respond,” Freeman said. “I’m worried about what President Dalon will say if we don’t contact him right now with a pledge of military support and additional weaponry to prevent any more overflights.”
“Philip, I can’t do it,” the President said wearily. “I don’t believe an increased military response is appropriate.”
“But we’d be leaving a valuable ally swinging in the wind, Mr. President,” insisted Freeman, disgusted by his Commander in Chief’s reluctance.
“The Turks did it to us by not informing us of their intention of helping the Ukraine,” the President pointed out.
“That was several months ago, sir, right after the Islamic Wars. When we found out what the Turks were doing, we were glad to have them take over. We wanted nothing more than to pull out and disengage from all military activities in the region, and we wanted Turkey to take charge of its own national defense. Well, in my opinion, now they need our help.”
“So why doesn’t Dalon just ask for it?” the First Lady asked pointedly. “He’s asked for defensive weapons, but he doesn’t want offensive weapons; he wants strike aircraft, but he doesn’t want Eagles or Falcons or the F-111s other than the reconnaissance models. Why not?”
Freeman was surprised at the First Lady’s use of military terminology — shit, she’d obviously been boning up — that was even scarier than the crisis. Well, almost. “Ma’am, the Turks are fiercely proud of their military forces—”
“A lot of good that does them,” she said dismissively, rolling her eyes.
“—and they’ll refuse to admit they need help in driving out their enemies. That’s seems to be standard cultural bias for any Middle Eastern country, and for Dalon to express any other view would be political and societal suicide. We have to respect that. But Dalon is a realist: he knows he can’t take on the Russians alone. He’ll gladly, but secretly, accept our help if we offer it — he will never request it.”
“So we get to name our own poison,” the President said bitterly. “We have to recommend aircraft that we want to send, troops we want to put in danger — and then we take the political heat when Dalon comes back and says he doesn’t need all this firepower, or his parliament blames us for escalating the conflict or putting Turkey in danger by sending more NATO troops into Turkey. We shouldn’t have to put up with this nonsense.”
“It’s the price we pay for membership in NATO and for wanting an ally like Turkey,” Freeman said. “Sir, we have to make a decision as soon as possible.”
The President turned away from Freeman and stared out one of the polycarbonate bullet-resistant windows. The First Lady went over to him, and the two spoke in low tones.
This was the most aggravating part of this White House, Freeman thought: he could have a staff of fifty professional analysts and staff assistants working all night on formulating a strong but measured deployment of forces to Turkey and the rest of NATO, but their work could — and had been in the past — be completely overruled by the Steel Magnolia. Sure, she was intelligent, and politically savvy, and in general she was fair and open-minded — but she was also strongly opinionated and tended to swing with the current popular political winds, especially those blowing from the liberal “left coast.”
“All right, all right, we’ll act on your recommendations,” the President said after several long moments. His wife did not look totally pleased — Freeman hated to think it, but in a way the First Lady’s displeasure was a major victory for him. “But I want the full NSC and the Congressional leadership in on this. It has not yet been proven to my satisfaction that the events in Turkey warrant a Desert Storm-type response, and I need more information. The current forces we’ve deployed in Turkey will have to stand for now.”
“Sir, I need to present the entire package to you, and I think I should do it before the leadership arrives,” Freeman said. “If it’s your decision to keep the 394th Air Battle Wing out there in Turkey by themselves, we must decide to what extent they can be involved in combat activities.”
“They can fire only when fired upon,” the First Lady interjected. “That seems fair.”
“Ma’am, the 394th is primarily a reconnaissance group,” Freeman said. “They take photos and analyze enemy radar systems from long range.”
“They have an offensive capability, General,” she fired right back.
“Which they should not use at all until a full combat-ready support group is deployed with them,” Freeman said. “Ma’am, the 394th is basically a support unit, not a combat unit unto itself. It flies in support of other strike units. Right now the only strike units it can attach itself to are three Turkish fighter units and a Ukrainian fighter-bomber group.”
“All right, General,” the President said after receiving a cautious nod of tentative approval from the First Lady, “I’ll look at your proposal and decide on which actions to authorize the 394th to do while they’re in Turkey. It won’t include combat — it’ll be purely defensive in nature, intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance, in support of territorial defense for our NATO allies and information-gathering for the Pentagon, but they’ll be able to defend themselves if fired upon over Turkish or international airspace or waters. The rest I’ll look at only after discussing the situation with the leadership—”
“And it includes the actions of the alert bombers,” the First Lady said. “I realize events and procedures are automatic when it comes to the alert force, but I still think this policy should be reevaluated, with all of our advisers present.” The President nodded his complete agreement.
One step at a time, Freeman thought — that was the way to deal with this President. He just hoped that things didn’t go to hell in Eastern Europe while the President — and his wife — tried to make up their minds.
“The Joint Chiefs, my staff, and myself have a plan to do precisely that — support a joint Turkish-Ukrainian attack mission,” Freeman continued. “The Russian Fleet has been moving steadily southward in the Black Sea, supported by an A-50 radar plane. The fleet has created a strong naval and counterair barrier to try to block any air action by the Ukrainian Air Force, and now they’re a direct threat to Turkey. Colonel Tychina of the Ukrainian Air Force has devised a bold plan for dealing with the Russians, but they need our help.”
“What kind of help?” the First Lady asked skeptically.
The General hesitated, glancing at Scheer and the President. “Excuse me, sir, but as far as I’m aware, the First Lady is not cleared to hear this information.”
The lightning bolts that launched from the Steel Magnolia’s eyes — first at Freeman and then at her husband — could have lighted a city. “We don’t have time for that now, General,” the President said quickly. “Proceed.”
“Yes, sir,” Freeman said. He wished he had another witness in here to confirm the President’s orders, but his career was on thin ice anyway. “Sir, the number-one threat out there to Turkey is the Russian Fleet and the Russian radar plane, which can keep watch over the entire region. Our Vampire bombers can attack the shipborne surveillance and missile guidance radars—”
“It sounds like an offensive plan to me, General,” the First Lady interjected. “Who attacks first, us or them?”
Freeman was dumbstruck by the question. “Why … I hope we get a chance to get into attack position before the Russian Fleet can engage our bombers.”
“So we fire the first shots? I think that’s wrong, General,” she snapped.