That kind of rhetoric made her a target for the “Man,” and for the rest of her life her son got a steady dose of that angry ideology. She schooled her son in Marxist, anti-capitalist ideology as well as pointing out the evils of world powers like the United States. Oetari always said that gave him a broader view of the world; a more empathetic view than the traditional colonial view; a view that had the United States looking down on all other nations as inferior.
On the productive side, she taught him globalization, and preached that the day of the superpowers must end in a New World Order that brought equality to all nations. That was productive because it spurred a young Oetari on to make something of himself. He cultivated friendships and through his mother’s academic friends, former members of her Terrorist cell now embedded in liberal academia, he received an invitation to Harvard. The young Oetari took advantage of it.
Backed by money, academia, a progressive generation in the media, Caucasian guilt and a gift of easy charm, Oetari translated Harvard into Harvard Law School and thence into politics. After a brief stint in the state legislature and one term in the Senate, his sponsors thrust the handsome, charismatic, articulate ideologue upon the scene as the answer to the stodgy, entrenched political stalemate that was Washington.
He took the political world by storm and even middle of the road conservatives — the American breadbasket — welcomed the change with curiosity and really some relief that the old dogmas were getting tossed out.
Yet in politics as in love some things never change.
Now the people against the “Man” were in power; they were the “Man.” Oetari made it very clear he didn’t want to play the same games. He wanted to do things his way and only his way. That made moments like these, rare though they were, decidedly uncomfortable for everyone. Oetari absolutely hated to be forced to do things he didn’t like.
“The Middle East should be left alone,” he grumbled. “We should never have gone into Iraq.”
“I agree with you Mr. President.” Mertzl replied calmly.
Oetari’s expression of surprise demanded an answer.
“I’m a military man Mr. President. I think in a strategic sense,” Mertzl explained. “The overthrow of Saddam Hussein was strategically a mistake and put the Middle East into turmoil. While he was in power Iraq was a check on Iranian expansion as well as theological terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS; all of which are far more dangerous that any Iraqi adventures.”
“So you would have left Kuwait in the hands of Saddam?” Ms. Carrabolla, Oetari’s National Security Agency advisor said, opening her mouth for the first time. She was out of her league with these men and she knew it. As the president’s former campaign advisor and for a time his Secretary to the United Nations, Carrabolla saw the world through the eyes of an ideologue. She was completely ignorant of the real world, and willing to say anything, true or not, to further the Administration.
Carrabolla was responsible for throwing the military and Intelligence community under the bus on more than one occasion — even as the president had — and thus the military men viewed her with suspicion and contempt. She returned the favor.
Mertzl laughed. “Kuwait had no value strategically, it was purely an Arab argument. Using the president’s own logic, it was none of our business, why interfere?” When Carrabolla was caught off guard by the remark, searching for a stinging response, he added, “Besides, why would a civilized nation support Kuwait, a country that is considering legalizing the enslavement of women; particularly Western women just like you, Ms. Carrabolla?”
She gazed at the general with shock, astounded that this military dinosaur so thoroughly and efficiently trumped her in rhetoric.
The president actually chuckled at the pointed criticism, sitting down at his desk. He sighed and spread his hands wide. “Justified or not, the Muslim world reacts emotionally to events. I’ll be the first to admit they are not driven by logic or debate; you simply cannot reason some subjects in an open forum without risking violence. That is especially true if you are crossing the imams; I remember that all too well.
“That being said, the more we interfere — rightly or wrongly — the more we stir the hornet’s nest of jihad. These people want their caliphate. Who are we to stand in their way?”
“That’s true Mr. President, and I think the American people would go along with you but for the brutality of ISIS,” Carrabolla said, trying to regain her standing amongst the national security team. “We need to act but not in a heavy handed manner which involve us in another protracted war like Vietnam.”
Her point was made, but to her surprise, Mertzl nodded and said, “Ms. Carrabolla is right Mr. President.”
“You agree with her?” the president said mockingly, amused that the general should side with someone he so obviously disliked.
“Yes, we risk the same results as Vietnam if we’re not careful; no one wants to see that.”
“So you admit that Vietnam was a mistake,” the president exclaimed. “Wonder of wonders, I should declare a national holiday!”
“Any time you fight a war not to win it’s a mistake,” the general said firmly. “But to gain peace in the region and then pull out lock, stock and barrel as we did in Vietnam is a mistake. Shortly after we left the North Vietnamese communists slaughtered two million of their fellow Vietnamese in cold blood. We watched and did nothing. The same thing is now happening in Iraq; it is the byproduct of leaving the world to terrorists and communists.”
Oetari was beside himself, but Carrabolla interjected herself into the sensitive discussion. “We are not abandoning Iraq. The president approved this Cobra operation. We are effectively striking the senior leadership of ISIS just as we did during the surge in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
“I agree, we still have time to correct the situation, but we need to be more aggressive,” the general advised. “We need to expand the Cobra operations to all aspects of the ISIS leadership. We also need to begin sabotaging their infrastructure, cutting their flow of money.”
“Anything else?” Carrabolla asked coarsely. “Can you be specific or is your only answer to carpet bomb everything and everybody.”
Director Gann stepped in, telling the president, “There is a surgical method of degrading and eventually destroying ISIS that does not involve carpet bombing, but we have to be committed to it.”
“I’m listening,” Oetari said with icy reserve.
“For example, ISIS is starting a campaign of transforming significant buildings into visual confirmation of their power and control, painting them black and designating them as ISIS government buildings. That works both ways. We should target every single one of those buildings and send a laser guided two-thousand pound bomb down their chimneys. That would humiliate ISIS in front of the local population; they’re helpless against air power.”
Oetari nodded gravely, saying, “I don’t really have a problem with that. The visual might be effective on the evening news. That might slow ISIS recruitment here.” He glanced up at FBI Director MacCloud. “Director, you’ve been unusually silent. Do you have any suggestions on the Homefront?”
“We have a list of the mosques, madrassas and organizations within the United States that have, may have, or may someday provide support for ISIS and or Al Qaeda. Every single one of those institutions should have their assets frozen immediately. The FBI should raid them. I guarantee our suspicions are nowhere near as bad as the truth.”