“What I’m trying to establish here is an understanding amongst us that this mission is not a holy crusade.”
“You’re absolutely right,” the XO agreed, “and we all need to understand that.”
“But we also need to understand what motivates radical Islamists to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people,” said Lieutenant Johnson. “Apparently, they don’t believe they’re going to be punished for that — they believe they’re going to be rewarded! That’s a very different value system than what Christianity teaches.”
“That’s true,” agreed the Chaplain. “The radicals believe that if they die in a martyrdom operation, they go straight to heaven where Allah supplies them with seventy-two virgins for their sexual pleasure! That’s pretty primitive thinking, actually. Something you’d expect cavemen to think of…”
Lieutenant Johnson responded, “It may be primitive, Chaplain, but it’s a pretty effective motivational tool. Every Muslim suicide bomber they have captured because his bomb malfunctioned has said he was really looking forward to those seventy-two virgins, made by Allah, especially for him!”
Pappy interrupted. “Okay, okay. Let’s get back to the issue at hand. Since Western democracies allow anybody to come in, and allow anybody to worship any religion, then we have a problem when huge numbers of Muslims immigrate, and when large numbers of people convert to Islam. Eventually, when the Muslims become a majority, it’s bye-bye religious freedom. Maybe even bye-bye democracy as we know it.”
At this point, the captain interrupted and said, “All right, this is all interesting conversation, but let’s get back to the real issue. You may find this hard to believe, but I don’t have a problem with Muslims immigrating to the U.S. or people converting to Islam. I don’t blame Muslims for believing what their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents believed in. Most of us in this room consider ourselves to be Christians, and the reason we’re Christians is because that’s what our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were.”
“But what about the threat to democracy and freedom of religion, Captain?” asked Pappy.
“As long as things happen peacefully, and in accordance with democratic principles, so be it. That’s what government by the people is all about. If the will of the people changes, then the country should change with it. Like Lieutenant Johnson said, our nation today bears very little resemblance to early America. But none of us thinks it’s all that bad. If Muslims become the majority in America and vote to establish an Islamic nation, democracy will most likely go down in rewritten history as a failed heretical attempt at society.”
The men around the table looked at each other to see if anyone had a response for the captain. No one did.
The captain turned to the chaplain. “I want to thank you, Chaplain, and congratulate you, too, on a job well done. Perhaps in your new life you can be an actor.”
The chaplain smiled sheepishly and glanced around the table at the perplexed officers sitting there.
“What’s this about, Captain?” asked the XO.
“Well, the opinions the Chaplain just expressed about the Bible and the Christian Church were mine, not his. I asked him to express them because I felt they would have more impact coming from him than from me. Most people immediately discount any criticism of their own religion unless it comes from a credentialed source. I wanted you to actually think about what he was saying. The point being, all religions are flawed. So this mission is not a Christian versus Muslim crusade.”
Glancing around the table, the captain noted everyone was listening intently.
“We hope and pray we never have to kill a single Muslim. Our enemies are not people who have chosen or were born to worship God through Islam; our enemies are terrorists who use selected texts from the Qur’an to justify mass murder. Unfortunately for most of the world’s Muslims, it is Islam the religion, the terrorists hold most sacred, not God’s underlying teaching of universal love. Therefore, it is Islam itself we must hold hostage in order to force the terrorists to stop their murderous ways.”
The room was silent. Each man met the captain’s gaze with agreement. As usual, the captain’s logic was infuriatingly… logical!
“Like I said, I don’t have a problem with peaceful change. Nothing is permanent. What I have a problem with are murderers who kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people in order to further their twisted and perverted version of theology. That, my friends is what we’re about. We’re not against peaceful change; we’re against murderers. And there is only one thing they understand: greater force.”
The room remained silent.
“Does everyone understand that?” asked the captain.
The captain looked around the room and met the eyes of each man. Each nodded in assent as he did so.
“Questions?”
There was a unanimous and simultaneous, “No, sir!”
“Then let’s get busy. You all know what to do.” “Aye-aye, sir!” and the room cleared out.
Chapter 23
Those in the Islamic world assumed the Louisiana would be maneuvering into a position from which it could launch its longrange ballistic missiles against Muslim nations. However, even if George’s plan had been one of retribution, he had always known that use of the Louisiana to launch missiles was not a viable option. The launch of a single missile would be immediately detected, and their position would be pinpointed. After that, it was highly unlikely they could evade U.S. and allied forces long enough to make another strike. It was even more ridiculous to contemplate using the Louisiana’s missiles as a deterrent against future terrorist attacks. The Louisiana would have to remain undetected for an extended period—years, in fact. A totally absurd proposition! Therefore, George’s plan was quite different. But before the plan could be implemented, they had to evade all of the world’s antisubmarine warfare (ASW) forces while operating with one-third of the submarine’s normal complement of officers and crew.
“It’s a simple matter of using Leona Harris’s daily position reports to evade the ASW forces while giving them bits of information that lead them in the wrong direction,” the captain explained to the XO. “We hope to make them think we’re headed for the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope. So we’re heading for the southwest coast of Africa, off Angola, where we’re going to give them a decoy transmission.”
“Captain, we’re actually going to make a radio transmission?” asked the XO incredulously. “Isn’t that a bit risky?”
“Everything is risky, Pappy.”
“Yes, I know, but—”
“If we keep the transmission short, they won’t be able to pinpoint our location. They’ll only know generally where it came from — which is what we want them to know.”
“That’s only true, Captain, as long as they don’t have any ASW forces in the immediate area. What if the U.S. has a P-3 or the Brits have a Nimrod flying in the area and we poke the antenna up and make a transmission? They’ll be on us like a duck on a June bug!”
“We’ll have to take that chance, XO. We need the diversion to buy us time. However, I’ve picked the location for the transmission because of its distance from any airfield to which the Americans or the Brits could gain access. It’s well outside of any of the ASW patrol areas that Petty Officer Harris has reported. They’re concentrating their efforts further south where they have the geographic advantage of the chokepoint going around the Cape. According to her reports, it’s crawling with them down there!”