The kitchen sent up breakfast to go with the pot of coffee. I looked at the updates that were on my desk. The CIA had a folder of satellite pictures – the Chinese were sending one of their carrier task forces into the Indian Ocean. The intercepted messages indicated it was on a port call to its base in Djibouti. It would arrive in the area in a couple days.

            It was probably going there to monitor how effective multi-carrier operations were run. They were far too late to help Iran.

            At 0730 the generals were in with the latest reports. They were given by Marine General Gorman and the Chief of Naval Operations.

            ”At noon on Saturday twenty San Antonio class, eight Wasp class and four America class amphibious landing and assault ships landed twenty five thousand Marines on Iranian territory. The landings were backed by two hundred and fifty A10s and Cobra helicopters. There was little opposition and we immediately began taking prisoners,” General Gorman said.

            ”The amphibious assault ships are transferring the twenty thousand army troops, tanks and trucks from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to Iran to expand the front. Logistics and supply lines are keeping up. Causalities have been very light,” the Chief of Naval Operations said in closing.

            ”Twenty thousand from Germany and England will be arriving tomorrow and Wednesday. The deals you made with King Elaud to allow so much equipment to be prepositioned for war games has been a Godsend,” Army Four Star General Mike Johnson said.

            I asked if the map room had been converted into a usable map for this operation.

            ”Yes it has and it is being kept up to date, if you would like to look at it,” General Ingram said.

            ”Yes I would,” I replied.

            I looked at the progress the troops were making and was satisfied so far.

            ”Are we still on track to drop leaflets tonight and stand down the heavy bombing for twenty four hours to allow them to have a discussion about a surrender?”

            “That heavy bombing stand down is not to affect localized ground operations,” I said

            ”Yes that is still the plan,” General Ingram replied.

            ”I want another major missile launch by the Navy and bombings by both the Air Force B21s and B52s MOAB and Seismic before midnight. I want them shaking before the calm,” I said.

            ”The next step I need to put in play is the diplomatic effort,” I added.

            I called Secretary of State Dean and asked him to come to the White House and bring his Iranian experts.

            An hour later we were in the Oval Office writing out the documents of surrender that would be offered to Iran’s diplomatic UN mission when they were ready. Another document that we worked on were the directives included if they did surrender.

             Secretary Dean made the calls to the UN to put the process in play. He requested a video meeting with the Secretary General of the UN Manuel Santos, the Iranian delegation led by Bahar Farzad, and the US Ambassador to the UN Victor Mason.

            A copy of the pamphlet written the three dominant languages that were being dropped tonight on the major Iranian cities was faxed to the US Ambassador as was the surrender document. That document was simple and straight forward.

            It took an hour for all the people at the UN to assemble in a room that had the ability to video conference.

            ”Good afternoon Secretary Santos, I’m glad you could make this meeting. I asked for this meeting to announce that there will be twenty four hour suspension in the heavy bombing campaign against Iranian military and Iranian government installations starting at midnight tonight. ”

            ”During the lull the pamphlets will be dropped advising the Iranian people and the government to unconditionally surrender and the process for Iranian soldiers to surrender to American troops.”

            ”If at the end of twenty four hours they – the government – have not chosen to surrender, the bombing will resume with bigger and more powerful bombs and current restricted sites will become first strike targets,” I said.

            ”Iran will never surrender. I have received no word that any serious damage has been done to my country. Centuries of resistance to outside armies cannot be swept away in six days. I do not believe you,” Ambassador Farzad said.

            ”If you want to visit what’s left of Iran I will arrange safe passage with escort for you. But such a trip from New York will not be completed before the bombing resumes.”    

            ”I would suggest you seek the assistance of your Pakistani Ambassador to make the trip and give you a report. The same offer of safe passage with escort will apply. The international airport at Tehran is closed but one runway is still operational,” I said.

            ”You must extend the cessation of the bombing and begin negotiations to end this conflict,” Secretary Santos said.

            ”There is nothing to negotiate – there is only one solution that I will accept and that is for Iran to unconditionally surrender. The bombing will only be stopped twenty four hours.”

            ”In case you haven’t been made aware of it the ground assault has begun. We have forty thousand troops on the ground in southern Iran with twenty thousand arriving tomorrow. We control all territory below the thirtieth north parallel,” I said.

            ”I would suggest you get busy and make arrangements if you want another party to view the damage and report back to you. Notify the State Department to arrange safe passage or go through Ambassador Mason,” I said.

            ”From intelligence I believe that you – Ambassador Farzad – are the highest ranking individual of your government to survive. It will be your decision on how much punishment your nation and your people have to endure before you surrender,” I said.

            I looked around the room at the participants, ”Do any of you have anything you want to add?” I asked. There was no response.

            ”Twenty four hours it is,” I said and closed the window.

            ”Any questions, opinions or suggestions?” I asked of the group in my office. No one said anything so I assumed that they were on board with my plans.

            ”Where else do we have troops that we can draw from? I am of the opinion that there will be no surrender in the next week or so. I think it will take a bigger show of force,” I said.

            ”We will continue to draw out of the Europe bases then shift to Asian and Pacific bases,” the General said.

            ”Okinawa has been untouched; there are fifteen thousand rapid response troops there. Guam has six thousand. Contract 747s can carry four hundred at a time and by utilizing contract C5Ms, quite a lot of equipment can be carried with them,” General Ingram said.

            I didn’t need to read between the lines – the contract C5Ms were the fifteen JBG had. They could carry five hundred each but that long of a flight was not going to be comfortable.

            The contract 747s were the ten passenger versions that JBG had. All that together was eleven thousand five hundred.

            ”The rest can be carried on the C17s the Air Force has. We have been taking a lot of advance equipment to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the last two weeks. After carrying soldiers over there we are going to lose some planes to inspections,” Air Force General Hobart said.

            ”After the troops at Okinawa, where are the next available troops from?” I asked.

            ”South Korea. Those troops will be put on alert today. Alert notifies them to be prepared to ship out in forty eight hours,” General Ingram said.

            ”Good, because I think they will be needed. I think it will take a large presence before they realize resistance is futile,” I said.

            ”Has the next selection of targets for the MOABs been decided on?” I asked.

            ”Yes, several targets are repeat targets because of the size. There are also two targets that we wanted your position on. On the Iraq/Syrian border there are two Iranian built bases that may be populated with possibly Syrian, Iraq and possibly Turkish troops as well as Iranian. The Russians have pulled out their troops months ago,” General Ingram said.

            ”Whose flag is flying above it and what kind of traffic has been happening?” I asked.

            ”The Iranian flag is flying above it. There was a lot of traffic between Iran and the bases. There are also Chinese antiaircraft missile systems around the bases. There has been some evidence of Syrian traffic but none in the last few days,” General Ingram said.

            ”Have the Navy overload their systems with missiles. And then put a MOAB on each.  That will make all the equipment unusable for the insurgent groups in the area,” I said.

            ”Do it before the midnight stand down,” I said.

            I had the kitchen send lunch to my private dining room. I wanted some time to think. The document of surrender was still just an outline. The State Department people didn’t know what they were doing – it had been so long since any country was forced to unconditionally surrender.

            All they seemed to know was how to work a truce and a diplomatic withdraw of forces. They were wanting to use the same documents that had been used in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago and Vietnam decades ago. All they wanted to do change a few dates, names and places.

            I guess that all new diplomatic training was to continually give rather than  demand and hold your ground. And I will be damned if that was going to happen!

            I didn’t have time to worry about it today. I had a large group of Senators and Congressional people coming today. They were from the Armed services, foreign relations and intelligence committees. It was my afternoon to be in the hot seat explaining my developing military policy on Iran. I was sure there would be plenty of questions of what do I have in mind after Iran surrenders.

            I pissed them off with the opening statement, ”I remind everyone this meeting and all discussions, all materials and references to any and all materials are classified. There are ongoing discussions with the UN, Iran, Pakistan and others. Any leaks could jeopardize those talks. Now let’s get started,” I said.

Edit by Alfmeister

Proof read by Bob W.