Before Khaled had a chance to respond the Crown Prince shook his head decisively. “I know I told you that I called you both here to discuss options.
The truth is nothing either of you has said has changed my mind about the course I’ve already recommended to His Majesty. We will ask the Americans to carry out a cruise missile attack on Iran, once we’ve confirmed that cruise missiles were the weapon the Iranians used to attack us. The Americans have a submarine stationed nearby that can easily launch such an attack, and if we have proof of Iran’s responsibility for the attack on our blockade force I’m sure we can persuade them to do so.”
Seeing Khaled’s expression the Crown Prince smiled and shook his head.
“Your work has not all been wasted. I will give your target list to the Americans. And let’s face it- both of you already have more than enough to do in Yemen.”
With that the Crown Prince rose, and Ali quickly found himself sitting alone across from an obviously unhappy Khaled.
“So,” Ali asked innocently, “can I get a ride with you back to Yemen?”
Technical Sgt. Josh Pettigrew had never heard of the United States Military Training Mission to Saudi Arabia, or as everyone called it USMTM, pronounced “youse-mi-tim.” After his last assignment in Korea Pettigrew had learned from his commanding officer that there had been a lively debate over whether he should be decorated and promoted, or court-martialed.
“Decorated and promoted” because he had helped to stop a North Korean armored attack on the base housing most of the drones used by US forces in Korea. “Court-martialed” because to do it he had violated numerous Air Force regulations, including the unauthorized use of an armed drone that was supposed to have been sent back to the US for decommissioning.
Fortunately for Pettigrew his CO had enough pull to settle the debate by losing his file long enough to send him as far away from Korea as possible.
Making his status even murkier was that USMTM was actually funded by the profits from US military sales to Saudi Arabia, which meant he was about as far off the organizational chart as possible while still being in the US military.
When he got the assignment he was immediately hustled on the first military transport headed to Kadena, for the first in a very long series of flights to Riyadh. With plenty of time to read, Pettigrew looked up USMTM’s history. He was amazed to learn that it dated back to 1945, when Franklin Roosevelt met with King Abdulaziz on board the USS Quincy at Great Bitter Lake, part of the waterway that with the Suez Canal connected the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. The details had changed over the years, but the basic proposition was the same — in order to defend itself the Saudis would supply the money and the troops, while the Americans would provide the weapons and the training.
Looking out at the dozen students in his classroom, all of them Saudis, Pettigrew thought back to a conversation he had with a friend who had tutored a Saudi named Maqbul studying history at an American university.
Maqbul had given him a paper to review he had written on the development of trade unions in Egypt during the reign of the leader who overthrew the monarchy after independence from the British, Gamal Abdel Nasser. At one point the paper described a strike at a textile factory, which Nasser ended by using troops to rout the strikers and arrest the strike’s leaders.
After reading on a few more pages, the tutor asked Maqbul if he knew what had happened to the strike’s leaders.
Maqbul replied, “They were hung.”
The tutor, nonplussed, asked, “Don’t you think you should have mentioned that in your paper?”
Maqbul shook his head and explained, “That would have gone against the thesis of my paper, which is that overall Nasser was good for trade unions in Egypt.”
Pettigrew knew he was going to need more than the PowerPoint slide deck he’d used with new drone warfare trainees Stateside.
The first slide was the standard one, showing a fully armed Reaper.
“In this course, we are going to focus on the drone we have just sold to the Kingdom, the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. This marks the first time we have sold the Reaper to a Middle Eastern ally, and one of the few cases where we have sold it outside NATO. Properly operated, it will give the Kingdom military capabilities nobody else in region can match.”
Pettigrew paused and pointed at a student in the first row, who had “Fadil” stenciled on his uniform.
“Why do you need this, Fadil?” Pettigrew asked, pointing at the Reaper showing on the slide.
“To defend the Kingdom from its enemies,” Fadil said promptly.
Pettigrew nodded. “And can those enemies attack your Reaper?”
Fadil looked confused, and then said slowly, “I read that it can fly very high.”
Pettigrew smiled. “Correct. It operates at heights up to fifteen thousand meters. Where do you think the Kingdom plans to deploy Reapers?”
Fadil answered immediately. “Yemen.”
Pettigrew nodded and clicked his remote. An online video filled the screen, showing a Reaper falling in flames, while a crowd of Houthi rebels cheered and jubilantly waved automatic weapons in the air. The video ended with Houthis poking at the Reaper’s smoking wreckage.
“This happened in western Yemen in 2017. The Reaper was launched and controlled by US forces in Djibouti. We don’t know what weapons system the Houthis used to shoot it down.”
Pettigrew pointed at another student. “Rahim, why are your forces fighting in Yemen?”
Rahim blinked, and was clearly confused by the question. After a moment he said, “To stop the Houthis from firing missiles at us.”
Pettigrew nodded, and clicked the remote again. This time the online video showed a Saudi M1A2 Abrams tank being hit and destroyed by Houthi anti-tank missile fire.
“This happened in Yemen in 2016. A dozen M1A2 tanks looking for Houthi ballistic missiles have been lost to Houthi anti-tank missiles so far.”
Pettigrew clicked the remote again, and another online video showed a different burning M1A2 tank.
“This is what happened in a Houthi attack in Jizan in 2018.”
Rahim shook his head. “Jizan is in Saudi Arabia.”
Pettigrew let the silence that followed stretch for nearly a minute before answering.
“Yes, it is.”
The classroom erupted in angry murmurs, which Pettigrew silenced with a chopping motion.
“You’re wondering why you haven’t already heard about the things I’m showing you. You all know that what you can access online in Saudi Arabia is censored. But as Reaper operators you all need to understand the whole truth.”
Pettigrew paused, and looked over the students. Pointing at the burning M1A2 tank on the screen, he said, “The Houthis are bringing the war to you.
After I am done teaching all of you how to use the Reaper, they are going to regret that choice.”
All the students were now nodding and murmuring agreement.
Pettigrew nodded as well, and pulled up the day’s first lesson on Reaper operation.
He had their attention.
Chapter Fifteen
Colonel Hamid Mazdaki had managed to get his force down to the Saudi border without word reaching the Saudis, a feat that would have been impossible without the help of the Iraqis. Its government wasn’t willing to join in a military action against the Saudis, but it was ready to help with any action carried out by its allies that cut them down to size. In this case that had meant shutting down a road for “security reasons” that saw little traffic anyway because, while it led to the border, it didn’t lead to a border crossing.