September 22, 2001
14.58pm
The President was enjoying the fanfare. Surrounded by excavation vehicles still digging up the ruins of the towers, President Cheney stood on the roof of a National Guard Humvee, a giant American flag perched atop the rubble behind him while before him spread out a sea of faces, many of them covered by dust from having worked at Ground Zero for days on end. Perhaps a hundred television cameras and microphones were pointed at him. An aide stood amongst them delicately held his black jacket over his arm as the President stood atop the Humvee, sleeves rolled up, poised like Lenin over the masses.
“The whole world sees you!” he shouted into a megaphone he held in one hand, and a cheer rang out. “They see what the terrorists fear! An American spirit that can never be conquered! When they hit us, we stand up stronger!” Another cheer. “And you know what I think? I think it’s time we started hitting back!” A great roar of agreement rose up. The President smiled, observing the scene before him. He reflected on his latest approval polls. Ninety percent. That wasn’t bad. It didn’t normally happen in democracies. He wondered for a moment how long it would last.
“Long enough to get some shit done, hopefully,” he thought to himself.
“The war that we’re in isn’t just fought on battlefields!” he continued to bellow. “It’s fought in every home in every country! In a relentless struggle between decency, morality, democracy, and the evils of extremism and hatred. We beat the Nazi empire and they owned most of Europe! Who says we can’t beat the bastards who only own caves and goats?” he shouted. Another roar of appreciation, mixed with laughter. The President was enjoying this very much.
“Make no mistake, the whole world hears you! And the people who did this to us,” he continued, pointing behind him at the rubble, “will be hearing us all soon!” He stepped down onto the trunk of the Humvee before jumping down, hoping his heart wouldn’t give way, as cheering erupted and many people came forward to whack him on the shoulder or shake his hand. The President started working the crowd, letting himself get swamped by the people, enjoying the thought of how much it must be panicking the Secret Service. Plenty of people shouted encouragement at him as he shook hands and had his shoulder thumped, but it all washed over him. The President was already thinking about the future, and especially how Afghanistan fit into that future.
22.07pm
It was raining outside again. The President glanced at the files compiled by the Pentagon for the initial strike on Afghanistan. It seemed pretty good to him. A mass attack against all key Taliban installations, as well as the hidden complexes and camps in the mountains either side of the Afghan-Pakistan border. B-52s were already being prepared, though the logistics of refuelling them to and from Afghanistan was proving to be a headache for the Pentagon.
President Cheney glanced around the Situation Room, and eyed up Colin Powell, who was still flicking through the four pages of plans. He looked like he was biting the inside of his cheek. Not a good sign. The President tuned back into the Secretary of Defense, who was still lost in the flow of his briefing.
“…and many of these targets will require some heavy bunker busters to root ‘em out, but we’ll get ‘em. As you can see, we’ve already identified plenty of targets, the benefits of having an eye trained on Afghanistan for the better part of a decade. Give it a few more days, and we'll be ready to blitz the shit out of them.”
“What targets are you hitting in Kabul?” asked Colin.
“Airports, airfields, any government building we can get our hands on,” replied Donald. “a decapitation strike in one quick swoop, knock ‘em down faster than throwing a cluster bomb at some bowling pins.” The President smiled. Colin looked unconvinced, as per usual. He turned to President Cheney.
“Mister President, I can’t suggest anything that’ll be more likely to get Bin Laden, but does this not sound somewhat over the top?”
“Not at all, Colin,” replied the President, adjusting his glasses. “We’re not facing a conventional army here, we’re facing a nation of insurgents. The kind of soldiers who make the caves and mountains their natural habitat.” Donald was nodding in the background. “Now if the inside of a house’s wall is invested with roaches, would you have gas sprayed into the wall?” he asked.
“Sure, Mister President,” said Colin reluctantly, unsure where this was going.
“Well I wouldn’t,” replied the President. “If you spray gas in, how can you be sure you got them all? Only takes one to repopulate the whole nest once again. I’d have the whole wall knocked down. The wall can be rebuilt. And that’s our plan; knock down the nation of insurgents, and rebuild it as a real, genuine republic. I know you think all our current talk of freedom makes us sound like jingoistic screaming hicks-”
“-no, Mister President, I don’t, I just think we need to be more rational.”
“So do I! What’s more rational than the belief that a democratic country is a better country? Especially when you’re talking about a country which produced the ideologies that covered New York in dust? Name me a democratic country we’ve been at war with in the last hundred years.” There was silence. “That’s my point. Afghanistan is just the beginning. It’s the seed we’re planting, and it’s gonna bloom. And if we’ve gotta pour some water on a few countries to help those seeds grow…”
“What’re you getting at, Mister President?” President Cheney was quiet for a moment, before standing and walking to the foot of the table, to the large map of Central Asia projected onto the wall.
“What I’m getting at, Colin, is that we’re the most powerful country in the history of mankind. And as luck would have it, we’re also the greatest democracy in the history of mankind too. So I ask you, is that worth defending?” There was a murmur of agreement. “But I say it’s worth more than just defending. It’s worth promoting. Whether by sword or by olive branch, we’ve got to seize the opportunity before it disappears.” He pointed to China on the map. “Fifteen years from now, it could be these guys. They’ll be the new capital of the world. Why should they be? Why should the world begin bowing to a dictatorship? We saw what happens once already when half the world follows the lead of dictators, and it threatened our entire species with annihilation. And it’s not just China, it’s Russia too. They’ll both rise. We all know Russia isn’t a real democracy, and a rising country that isn’t a democracy is a rising threat.”
“Are you suggesting we wage war on Russia and China?” asked Colin.
“Not necessarily,” replied President Cheney. That response didn’t give Colin comfort. “But I am suggesting that history shows a very clear pattern. If two countries become too powerful, and they are built on opposing ideologies, war is inevitable. We dodged a bullet with the Soviets, but will we dodge the next one? We can’t let our republic, this country which is the best chance in human history of leading mankind into the light of true democracy and freedom, fall into second place. We can’t recede. So,” he pointed back at Afghanistan, “it starts here. And from there, we progress.” His hand moved to point at nearby Iraq. “Sooner or later, Saddam will fall. Why not make it sooner? The people of Iraq cry out for us to save them, to free them. We know he’s a threat to us anyway. So now we have two seeds. Two new republics, built in our image. And then…” he pointed to the east of Iraq, “…Iran.” He smiled. “This is where it culminates. We would have created a sparkling new Middle East. A democratic one. Once we have Iraqi and Iranian oil flowing in, we won’t need any from the Saudis. They’ll run dry, and soon riots will be on the streets, even in Mecca, and not long after that the Saudi people will have made their own republic. They won’t even need us to bomb them to help persuade them.” Donald and the Vice President both laughed.
“And what of Russia and China?” asked Colin sheepishly.
“AEGIS will deal with that,” replied the President. “We’ll pump in all the money needed to create an umbrella, over ourselves and our allies, which will be able to shoot down any incoming ICBMs. Nuclear weapons themselves will be rendered obsolete. Reagan was never serious about doing this, it was just a ploy to frighten the Soviets. Well, I’m deadly serious. Once AEGIS is operational, we’ll be on equal terms with Russia and China conventionally. And when we’re on equal terms conventionally…” he laughed, and looked up, towards the Vice President. Paul Wolfowitz smiled, and nodded. “…we can’t lose.”