Chapter 15
Chapter 15: Eyes on Fire
Norfolk, Virginia, September 29th, 1980:
Captain Dick Marcinko sat in the waiting room of the Navy’s human resources department, waiting for his number to come up. He was supposed to have had this done months ago, but operations in Iran had kept requiring his attention. Brass had finally had enough of him riding along on dangerous ops, so they sent him home on shore leave. He never could feel truly comfortable at home, though. It was as if he could feel an itch, all over his body, a general sense that something wasn’t right. He’d gotten used to quiet nights, with the rattle of gunfire off in the distance to lull him to sleep; the mechanical hum and human life of the city felt off, and 20 years of experience had wired his body to respond to things being off defensively. He wasn’t a paranoiac, but that didn’t stop every one of his instincts from warning him that the peace of home was an enemy ruse.
“Number twenty-three, Captain Marcinko?” asked the HR rep from his desk.
“Oh, sorry,” Marcinko said, “I guess I was… lost in my thoughts.”
Marcinko stood up from his seat and walked over to the desk. He sat on the chair in front of it.
“Now, Captain, how can I help you?”
“I’m here to have my fingerprints retaken.” Marcinko replied.
“Why is that?” asked the HR rep.
Dick pulled off his white gloves, revealing heavily scarred palms. Some of his fingerprints were still intact, but his palm prints were almost totally obliterated.
“Damn, how did you get those?”
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Washington, DC, September 21st, 1980:
Jimmy Carter and Director of Central Intelligence Stansfield Turner sat across from each other at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. On the desk sat a briefcase; old, beaten, and badly burnt. It was open, revealing its cache of official Iranian government stationery. Some of it was charred; much of it was stained with the blood of the Ayatollah himself. Next to the briefcase sat a document, written on the Iranian stationery.
“We had our top men study Khomeini’s handwriting for months to make sure this was perfect,” said Turner. “You wanted a smoking gun tying Khomeini to the Embassy Massacre, and now you’ve got one.”
“We’re really going to do this, Stansfield?” asked Carter, “lie to the American people that a massacre was always the plan?”
“It’s not like we’ve never lied to justify military action before,” replied Turner, “Second Gulf of Tonkin incident? Never happened. Total fabrication. And that’s still a secret.”
Carter was hesitant. “But… how do we justify this to ourselves?”
“Well, Mr. President,” said Turner, “Do you want my opinion as Director of Central Intelligence, or as your friend?”
“I want your opinion as a friend, Stansfield.”
“Well, Jim, I think Khomeini had it coming. He might not have ordered the attack himself, but he never condemned the massacre or the people who perpetrated it. He called the embassy a den of spies, and continued to insist that the actions of the attackers were defensible because the embassy guards shot first.”
“Did our boys shoot first?” The President asked.
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There is a firefight at the edge of Desert One. There have been many before, and there will be many to come. A young private and his comrades crouch in cover behind a wrecked school bus. He is bleeding out from a gunshot to the stomach. The pain from the stomach acid leaking out and eating at his flesh is agonizing. He cannot move, but his friends must press on. His closest friend crawls over to him.
“[I promise, we will be back for you!]” he says. The private wants to respond, but is in too much pain.
His squadmates move out from behind the bus to move on the American cover. They too will become casualties in the ongoing effort to uproot the Americans from their base. The private clutches at his side, praying to Allah to save him. A part of him knows he will not survive, and he thinks on his regrets. Perhaps in another life, the ambitious young man could have made something of himself, but in this one, Private Ahmadinejad will die in the desert, alone, and afraid.
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Baltimore, Maryland, September 27th, 1980:
For an hour, the President and his challenger stood at their podiums, debating the issues facing America. The recent revelation of Khomeini’s order to kill the diplomats had galvanized the public against Iran, and the topic of Iran dominated the debate.
“Are you truly convinced, Mr. President,” asked Reagan, “That it’s in our country’s best interest to get stuck in another quagmire of a war? And a quagmire is what we’re going to get. The people of Iran do not want us there. They ousted the Shah, a symbol of Iran’s relationship with America. No one will see us as liberators, liberators from what? The government they chose?”
The turn to speak passed to Carter.
“What would your response be, then, to the willful massacre of innocent Americans? Should I have sat idly by and allowed a murderous regime to flaunt its disregard for both international law, and life itself?” replied the President.
“Why a war, then?” asked Reagan.
“If we had simply declared victory after the death of the Ayatollah, what would it have accomplished? Khomeini was only a man, and even as we speak his replacement moves into authority. We would have affected no change to the state of affairs in Iran; we would have achieved nothing beyond sheer bloody revenge.”
The debate continued, discussing the matter of the economy. On this, Reagan destroyed Carter. He’d correctly guessed that Carter’s play would be to keep the public focused on the war, but unfortunately, the debate only had a few questions on the economy. Eventually, the debate came to a conclusion, each speaker presenting their closing argument.
“…. And so, I ask you,” Reagan said, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we're as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions 'yes', why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don't agree, if you don't think that this course that we've been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have.”
The opportunity to speak fell to Carter.
“I would then ask you, my fellow Americans,” he said, “Where do you see yourselves four years from now? Do you see yourself in an America at the forefront of a global effort against terror and tyranny, or an America picking old fights, trying to pretend that it’s still the seventies, and that the real threat to America is an ideology rather than actual flesh-and-blood terrorists? Do you see an America forever perched on the edge of nuclear annihilation, always living in fear of the bomb, or an America that can work with her old enemies to face the issues most pressing to the world?...”
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Dick Marcinko pulled out of the Navy office parking lot, tuning his car radio to the local news station.
“---esident Carter’s unexpectedly resolved performance at the debate has narrowed Governor Reagan’s lead considerably going into the final months of the campaign, with many opinion polls even putting the beleaguered President ahead. It’s not clear exactly how much this is due to the President’s performance, and how much is due to the recent revelation of the so-called “smoking gun memo” recovered by American special forces from Iran. At this point, the election is simply too close to call.”
Marcinko looked down at his hands.
“You’re welcome, Mr. President,” he said with a smirk as he drove away.
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“I'm taking it slow
Feeding my flame
Shuffling the cards of your game
And just in time
In the right place
Suddenly I will play my ace”
-Blue Foundation
