It kills me that Bin Laden is still at large - may that other boot drop, and drop soon.
Rejection and Revenge: An alternate 9/11 timeline
- Thread starter wolverinethad
- Start date
You damn right it's back.
I've been buried in work for weeks now, as I've moved into new territory in terms of job responsibility. I was watching The Americans last night and suddenly, the spark hit me. Writing the next chapter now.
I've been buried in work for weeks now, as I've moved into new territory in terms of job responsibility. I was watching The Americans last night and suddenly, the spark hit me. Writing the next chapter now.
Accurateworldwar
Banned
Seriously though, I started re-reading this and I'm just glad it has returned. I'm looking forward to seeing what the alt-2017 would look like.
Well, the next chapter should definitely excite the technonerds amongst us. The sequel will definitely get into the later years, but I think that this one is going to stop by the end of 1993. That's what it feels like is the right call. Not to give too much away, but I teased at the beginning of one of the chapters a long while back that Russia would turn into, well, sort of what it is today, but quicker and more violently. Well, the sequel will cover how that plays out.
LXXVI
April 27, 1993
New York, NY
7:00 am
“Good morning, everyone, it's April 27, 1993, and this is the Today show. I'm Bryant Gumbel, with Katie Couric, and we open the show with news out of St. Petersburg, Russia, where a videotape of the aftermath of the food riots three weeks ago has been brought to Finland, and Finnish television began broadcasting it earlier this morning. I'd like to warn viewers that what they're about to witness may be considered graphic, so parents should remove small children from the room now..."
And with those words, the east coast of America saw the footage of a shaky camera, shot at a distance, of BTR's and BMP's moving through the streets of St. Petersburg, with Russia soldiers shooting and people running in terror. The screams were unmistakable, as was the gunfire. The camera then zoomed in, and the viewer could see bodies laying in the street. One soldier walked up to a person and fired a round into their head. The camera was far enough out that the details weren't visible, but it was clear what had happened. The Russians had murdered a number of their own people, and unlike the Vilnius massacre of a few years ago, this one was seen by the world, not just heard about.
Tony Lake was already exhausted. It'd been the longest three months of his life. Not even the Nixon White House, with Vietnam and street protests and Soviet/China border skirmishes, had been this chaotic. Of course, Lake wasn't an assistant to the National Security Advisor now. He WAS the National Security Advisor. Part of him felt he understood why Kissinger was so tough on his staff now. When it feels like the world is going to hell around you, it's hard to be nice to people. Lake was having a harder time keeping his temper in check these days, and the strain was showing on everyone. The constant crisis atmosphere was disrupting sleep cycles and personal lives. Lake was almost to the basement offices of the National Security Office (his office was in the northwest corner of the West Wing) when he decided to turn around and go see Lee Hamilton.
Lake got to Hamilton's office in the southwest corner of the first floor, and found that the Chief of Staff was not there. Hamilton had taken to starting days later whenever he could, since Clinton was becoming more nocturnal than he'd ever been before, and would keep his chief of staff up many nights bouncing thoughts off him. The President was intellectually voracious, and very mentally agile, and a nation that had been led by older men the past twelve years was finding itself having to adjust to a leader who was leading a Kennedyesque revival, which meant more energy and later hours. Washington, D.C., and the White House had spent over a decade being used to older men who liked their sleep, and now a young White House facing the gravest crisis since the Civil War was never asleep.
Lake plopped himself on the couch and closed his eyes. About a half hour later, Hamilton came through the door and found the National Security Advisor snoring away. After briefly being startled, Hamilton started to chuckle, and then broke into laughter at the sprawled figure of Lake, whose mouth was wide open as he snored. The laughter jolted Lake out of his slumber, and he saw Hamilton sitting on the front of his desk.
“Shit, I'm sorry, Lee, I was waiting for you and just....you know, forget it. I'm just glad you didn't have a video camera on you, or I'd never live it down.” Lake sheepishly sat up. “Anyway, the reason I was waiting was because I want to hire more staffers for the NSC. We can't keep up down there, everyone is short of sleep and snappy, and we're going to start making mistakes. We can't afford that. The whole world is going straight to hell, and I'm sure you saw Today before you left the house. Can I go ahead and bring some more people aboard? I've got a list already.”
“Absolutely, Tony. I'll square it with the Boss and Congress. I don't think anyone is going to deny extra funding for national security right now. Hey, listen, have you heard of the World Wide Web? No? I'd like for you to join a meeting later today. Myself, Bill Perry, the Vice President, and Stephanopoulos will be there too. Trust me, this is something you'll want to know about.” Lake thanked Hamilton, then headed back to his office. He had some calls to make.
*****
That afternoon, Lake came to the VP's West Wing office, which meant stepping out of his, turning right, and walking right into the next doorway. Gore was sitting at the head of his conference table with a portable computer plugged into a 19” monitor on a stand behind him. A long cord that looked like a phone cord, yet thicker, was running out of it to the wall. The National Security Advisor sat down, poured a cup of coffee from the decanter in the middle of the table, and looked at the monitor.
“Gentlemen, as you know, I was a major sponsor of funding ARPANET during the 1980s, and sponsored a bill to pass funding for networked communications research two years ago. What you're about to see is, in part, derived from that work and funding. It holds the key to accelerating communications and information sharing around the world. You may have heard of Dr. Timothy Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland. A little over a year ago, he created what he called the World Wide Web, a new way to send data over a network, allowing for passive access to the data as opposed to users on both sides needing to actively be working. And now, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, whom my 1991 bill funded, has created a program called Mosaic. I'd like you to see what that does.” Gore opened the program up, and typed into a bar at the top a long group of words and acronyms that the others around the table did not understand. They also didn't hear the hiss of a modem, despite seeing what looked like one connected to the portable computer.
Mosaic began displaying graphics and words on the monitor, loading in pieces, until clear text and pictures were visible. The men around the table had never seen anything like this before. They all used computers, of course, but they were used to green or black & white screens, using floppy disks. This was something new, in full color, and they saw no disks in use. Stephanopoulos, the young communications director, was the first to blurt it out: “Mr. Vice President, how are you doing this?”
Gore smiled. “This is a new notebook computer from Toshiba. It's the first to run Microsoft Windows, use IBM-compatible components, and I am connecting to the World Wide Web through a type of specialized phone line, called ISDN. The reason I'm showing you all this is because communications is undergoing a revolution right now, and I want the United States to seize this moment. The world is getting more dangerous, and I think it's important that the people know what is happening in greater detail. I think it's important that we work to break down barriers with other nations, so what we saw this morning in Russia and what happened in Tienanmen Square four years ago cannot happen in the future without the world seeing it immediately.”
The vice president continued, “Fiber-optic cables have the ability to move data at much faster speeds than a Prodigy or Compuserve connection does in your house. ISDN takes advantage of that by being always connected, but the technology is still slow. Scientists at NCSA and elsewhere have assured me we can move the data faster. Bill, you already have technology to do this between NRO and DOD, correct?” Perry nodded. “Exactly! It is a large investment, but we have the potential to change the world and create large amounts of jobs in this country. We can educate our citizens and give them a way to lift themselves past our competitors in Japan and Europe. This is an absolute game-changer, gentlemen, and I want your support when I present this to the president.”
Lake sat in his chair, astonished. This was truly life-changing technology, the biggest development since the invention of the television. Hamilton loved the idea, but foresaw a fight getting funding for it on top of the cost of rebuilding three cities, increasing defense spending, a fragile recovery from recession, and passing the universal health care bill. Stephanopoulos was near-giddy. The young man was brimming with excitement over the possibilities. Bill Perry was quiet, but pleased that all the work that he'd done towards launching ARPANET under Carter had brought about this wondrous development.
Lake and Hamilton excused themselves, while Stephanopoulos and Perry moved closer to Gore so he could show them more of these “web pages” and then passed it to them so they could try their own hand at it. They marveled over the Toshiba T3400 notebook as well. Apple had developed their own notebooks domestically, but their stock was falling, as it had been ever since Steve Jobs had been shown the door. The irony was that this World Wide Web had been developed on a NeXT computer, built by Jobs. That gave Gore another idea. He was going to call Jobs and see if he wanted a new challenge.
*****
9:13 pm
Libya
Osama bin Laden and his men were on the move. Bin Laden had left a small contingent to stay behind and assist Qaddafi, and the Colonel had been assured by Bin Laden that he could count on the future help of his organization, but that he felt it best for both of their safeties that he depart for new quarters. Qaddafi, whose life had been spared by his own penchant for changing locations and sleeping in tents when American bombers came to “visit” in 1986, was understanding. He knew how active the veteran mujahideen had been, and didn't want to see nuclear bombs dropping over his beloved land. Qaddafi had also decided that if it came down to it, he would gladly tell the West where they could find this tall Arab rather than die for him.
A convoy of vehicles was traveling across the desert, headed for the border with Sudan. Bin Laden used his good contacts within the government there to arrange a cargo plane that would make the short flight to Somalia's Berbera Airport, built by the Soviets nearly 20 years ago. It was capable of landing any airplane in existence, and was one of the largest landing strips in all of Africa. Located in the breakaway province of Somaliland, which was not recognized by the United Nations, the presence of a single unmarked Sudanese cargo plane would not draw any untoward attention, especially since the government of Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur had received a healthy cash payment from the Sudanese to ensure this remained the case, and to provide a home for their new guests.
The convoy made its way to the Sudanese Air Force base some time after 2:00 am and the airmen loaded the cargo plane with the belongings, weapons, and other materials of the bin Laden group. It took off and landed in the early dawn at Berbera, where a large 18-wheeler sat with a trailer. By the time the sun rose above the buildings of the surrounding city, the trailer was on its way to a compound. The Tuur government had naval facilities with walls to keep prying eyes out and ample security. In return, Bin Laden offered to advise Tuur on how to deal with Mohammed Aidid, the warlord controlling much of Somalia, whom Tuur wanted to see dead so the nation could reconcile, under his leadership, of course.
*****
April 29, 1993
The White House
Washington, D.C.
The Cabinet meeting was called because the President wanted the advice of everyone before he made his decision. The meeting had been moved to the Roosevelt Room to accommodate a larger group of people, namely the Republican pragmatists of the Cold War: Bush, Nixon, Ford, ex-NSA director Bobby Ray Inman (the current chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board), retired Chairman of the JCS Admiral William Crowe, James Baker, George Shultz, Brent Scowcroft, and Lawrence Eagleburger. It was perhaps the greatest gathering of minds in American history. Security in Washington had suddenly been ramped up. The media was barred from Andrews Air Force Base, while everyone in the room had been picked up in the pre-dawn hours, notified by a telephone call the day before, and transported to the White House. The 82nd Airborne had been flown in the middle of the night from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to the city and set up discreet patrols within the entirety of southern D.C. The morning news shows speculated heavily about a new threat to the city, and cameras had been removed from the South Lawn, so nobody could film the arrival of vehicles. The media was confined to the press area upon arrival. An attack upon the White House would decimate the leadership of the nation, and nobody wanted to be responsible. The overboard nature of the security escalation infuriated people during their daily commute, but as people had done across the country since February 11th, they coped and got on with their day.
Clinton opened the meeting. “We've all seen how the Russians acted in St. Petersburg, and you can all see the heavy criticism I've faced for walking alongside Rutskoy at Yeltsin's funeral when he was murdering his people in the streets. No disrespect to you, President Bush, but you chose to not punish China in any way for Tiananmen Square, and I don't know I can do the same for Russia. If we let it slide again, how are we any better than they are? How can we claim moral leadership? It's one thing to retaliate for an attack, it's another to stand by and allow a massacre to go unchecked. I'm considering publicly pulling my support for Russia. We won't break relations, but I don't know how we can be a friend to them without alienating our allies. This is why I've called you here. I want to hear you all out on this before I decide, and I want a serious debate. When we're done, I just ask that you support what decision I make in public. We cannot afford to be divided in the eyes of the world.”
Everyone traded looks with each other. It was going to be a long afternoon.
April 27, 1993
New York, NY
7:00 am
“Good morning, everyone, it's April 27, 1993, and this is the Today show. I'm Bryant Gumbel, with Katie Couric, and we open the show with news out of St. Petersburg, Russia, where a videotape of the aftermath of the food riots three weeks ago has been brought to Finland, and Finnish television began broadcasting it earlier this morning. I'd like to warn viewers that what they're about to witness may be considered graphic, so parents should remove small children from the room now..."
And with those words, the east coast of America saw the footage of a shaky camera, shot at a distance, of BTR's and BMP's moving through the streets of St. Petersburg, with Russia soldiers shooting and people running in terror. The screams were unmistakable, as was the gunfire. The camera then zoomed in, and the viewer could see bodies laying in the street. One soldier walked up to a person and fired a round into their head. The camera was far enough out that the details weren't visible, but it was clear what had happened. The Russians had murdered a number of their own people, and unlike the Vilnius massacre of a few years ago, this one was seen by the world, not just heard about.
Tony Lake was already exhausted. It'd been the longest three months of his life. Not even the Nixon White House, with Vietnam and street protests and Soviet/China border skirmishes, had been this chaotic. Of course, Lake wasn't an assistant to the National Security Advisor now. He WAS the National Security Advisor. Part of him felt he understood why Kissinger was so tough on his staff now. When it feels like the world is going to hell around you, it's hard to be nice to people. Lake was having a harder time keeping his temper in check these days, and the strain was showing on everyone. The constant crisis atmosphere was disrupting sleep cycles and personal lives. Lake was almost to the basement offices of the National Security Office (his office was in the northwest corner of the West Wing) when he decided to turn around and go see Lee Hamilton.
Lake got to Hamilton's office in the southwest corner of the first floor, and found that the Chief of Staff was not there. Hamilton had taken to starting days later whenever he could, since Clinton was becoming more nocturnal than he'd ever been before, and would keep his chief of staff up many nights bouncing thoughts off him. The President was intellectually voracious, and very mentally agile, and a nation that had been led by older men the past twelve years was finding itself having to adjust to a leader who was leading a Kennedyesque revival, which meant more energy and later hours. Washington, D.C., and the White House had spent over a decade being used to older men who liked their sleep, and now a young White House facing the gravest crisis since the Civil War was never asleep.
Lake plopped himself on the couch and closed his eyes. About a half hour later, Hamilton came through the door and found the National Security Advisor snoring away. After briefly being startled, Hamilton started to chuckle, and then broke into laughter at the sprawled figure of Lake, whose mouth was wide open as he snored. The laughter jolted Lake out of his slumber, and he saw Hamilton sitting on the front of his desk.
“Shit, I'm sorry, Lee, I was waiting for you and just....you know, forget it. I'm just glad you didn't have a video camera on you, or I'd never live it down.” Lake sheepishly sat up. “Anyway, the reason I was waiting was because I want to hire more staffers for the NSC. We can't keep up down there, everyone is short of sleep and snappy, and we're going to start making mistakes. We can't afford that. The whole world is going straight to hell, and I'm sure you saw Today before you left the house. Can I go ahead and bring some more people aboard? I've got a list already.”
“Absolutely, Tony. I'll square it with the Boss and Congress. I don't think anyone is going to deny extra funding for national security right now. Hey, listen, have you heard of the World Wide Web? No? I'd like for you to join a meeting later today. Myself, Bill Perry, the Vice President, and Stephanopoulos will be there too. Trust me, this is something you'll want to know about.” Lake thanked Hamilton, then headed back to his office. He had some calls to make.
*****
That afternoon, Lake came to the VP's West Wing office, which meant stepping out of his, turning right, and walking right into the next doorway. Gore was sitting at the head of his conference table with a portable computer plugged into a 19” monitor on a stand behind him. A long cord that looked like a phone cord, yet thicker, was running out of it to the wall. The National Security Advisor sat down, poured a cup of coffee from the decanter in the middle of the table, and looked at the monitor.
“Gentlemen, as you know, I was a major sponsor of funding ARPANET during the 1980s, and sponsored a bill to pass funding for networked communications research two years ago. What you're about to see is, in part, derived from that work and funding. It holds the key to accelerating communications and information sharing around the world. You may have heard of Dr. Timothy Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland. A little over a year ago, he created what he called the World Wide Web, a new way to send data over a network, allowing for passive access to the data as opposed to users on both sides needing to actively be working. And now, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, whom my 1991 bill funded, has created a program called Mosaic. I'd like you to see what that does.” Gore opened the program up, and typed into a bar at the top a long group of words and acronyms that the others around the table did not understand. They also didn't hear the hiss of a modem, despite seeing what looked like one connected to the portable computer.
Mosaic began displaying graphics and words on the monitor, loading in pieces, until clear text and pictures were visible. The men around the table had never seen anything like this before. They all used computers, of course, but they were used to green or black & white screens, using floppy disks. This was something new, in full color, and they saw no disks in use. Stephanopoulos, the young communications director, was the first to blurt it out: “Mr. Vice President, how are you doing this?”
Gore smiled. “This is a new notebook computer from Toshiba. It's the first to run Microsoft Windows, use IBM-compatible components, and I am connecting to the World Wide Web through a type of specialized phone line, called ISDN. The reason I'm showing you all this is because communications is undergoing a revolution right now, and I want the United States to seize this moment. The world is getting more dangerous, and I think it's important that the people know what is happening in greater detail. I think it's important that we work to break down barriers with other nations, so what we saw this morning in Russia and what happened in Tienanmen Square four years ago cannot happen in the future without the world seeing it immediately.”
The vice president continued, “Fiber-optic cables have the ability to move data at much faster speeds than a Prodigy or Compuserve connection does in your house. ISDN takes advantage of that by being always connected, but the technology is still slow. Scientists at NCSA and elsewhere have assured me we can move the data faster. Bill, you already have technology to do this between NRO and DOD, correct?” Perry nodded. “Exactly! It is a large investment, but we have the potential to change the world and create large amounts of jobs in this country. We can educate our citizens and give them a way to lift themselves past our competitors in Japan and Europe. This is an absolute game-changer, gentlemen, and I want your support when I present this to the president.”
Lake sat in his chair, astonished. This was truly life-changing technology, the biggest development since the invention of the television. Hamilton loved the idea, but foresaw a fight getting funding for it on top of the cost of rebuilding three cities, increasing defense spending, a fragile recovery from recession, and passing the universal health care bill. Stephanopoulos was near-giddy. The young man was brimming with excitement over the possibilities. Bill Perry was quiet, but pleased that all the work that he'd done towards launching ARPANET under Carter had brought about this wondrous development.
Lake and Hamilton excused themselves, while Stephanopoulos and Perry moved closer to Gore so he could show them more of these “web pages” and then passed it to them so they could try their own hand at it. They marveled over the Toshiba T3400 notebook as well. Apple had developed their own notebooks domestically, but their stock was falling, as it had been ever since Steve Jobs had been shown the door. The irony was that this World Wide Web had been developed on a NeXT computer, built by Jobs. That gave Gore another idea. He was going to call Jobs and see if he wanted a new challenge.
*****
9:13 pm
Libya
Osama bin Laden and his men were on the move. Bin Laden had left a small contingent to stay behind and assist Qaddafi, and the Colonel had been assured by Bin Laden that he could count on the future help of his organization, but that he felt it best for both of their safeties that he depart for new quarters. Qaddafi, whose life had been spared by his own penchant for changing locations and sleeping in tents when American bombers came to “visit” in 1986, was understanding. He knew how active the veteran mujahideen had been, and didn't want to see nuclear bombs dropping over his beloved land. Qaddafi had also decided that if it came down to it, he would gladly tell the West where they could find this tall Arab rather than die for him.
A convoy of vehicles was traveling across the desert, headed for the border with Sudan. Bin Laden used his good contacts within the government there to arrange a cargo plane that would make the short flight to Somalia's Berbera Airport, built by the Soviets nearly 20 years ago. It was capable of landing any airplane in existence, and was one of the largest landing strips in all of Africa. Located in the breakaway province of Somaliland, which was not recognized by the United Nations, the presence of a single unmarked Sudanese cargo plane would not draw any untoward attention, especially since the government of Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur had received a healthy cash payment from the Sudanese to ensure this remained the case, and to provide a home for their new guests.
The convoy made its way to the Sudanese Air Force base some time after 2:00 am and the airmen loaded the cargo plane with the belongings, weapons, and other materials of the bin Laden group. It took off and landed in the early dawn at Berbera, where a large 18-wheeler sat with a trailer. By the time the sun rose above the buildings of the surrounding city, the trailer was on its way to a compound. The Tuur government had naval facilities with walls to keep prying eyes out and ample security. In return, Bin Laden offered to advise Tuur on how to deal with Mohammed Aidid, the warlord controlling much of Somalia, whom Tuur wanted to see dead so the nation could reconcile, under his leadership, of course.
*****
April 29, 1993
The White House
Washington, D.C.
The Cabinet meeting was called because the President wanted the advice of everyone before he made his decision. The meeting had been moved to the Roosevelt Room to accommodate a larger group of people, namely the Republican pragmatists of the Cold War: Bush, Nixon, Ford, ex-NSA director Bobby Ray Inman (the current chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board), retired Chairman of the JCS Admiral William Crowe, James Baker, George Shultz, Brent Scowcroft, and Lawrence Eagleburger. It was perhaps the greatest gathering of minds in American history. Security in Washington had suddenly been ramped up. The media was barred from Andrews Air Force Base, while everyone in the room had been picked up in the pre-dawn hours, notified by a telephone call the day before, and transported to the White House. The 82nd Airborne had been flown in the middle of the night from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to the city and set up discreet patrols within the entirety of southern D.C. The morning news shows speculated heavily about a new threat to the city, and cameras had been removed from the South Lawn, so nobody could film the arrival of vehicles. The media was confined to the press area upon arrival. An attack upon the White House would decimate the leadership of the nation, and nobody wanted to be responsible. The overboard nature of the security escalation infuriated people during their daily commute, but as people had done across the country since February 11th, they coped and got on with their day.
Clinton opened the meeting. “We've all seen how the Russians acted in St. Petersburg, and you can all see the heavy criticism I've faced for walking alongside Rutskoy at Yeltsin's funeral when he was murdering his people in the streets. No disrespect to you, President Bush, but you chose to not punish China in any way for Tiananmen Square, and I don't know I can do the same for Russia. If we let it slide again, how are we any better than they are? How can we claim moral leadership? It's one thing to retaliate for an attack, it's another to stand by and allow a massacre to go unchecked. I'm considering publicly pulling my support for Russia. We won't break relations, but I don't know how we can be a friend to them without alienating our allies. This is why I've called you here. I want to hear you all out on this before I decide, and I want a serious debate. When we're done, I just ask that you support what decision I make in public. We cannot afford to be divided in the eyes of the world.”
Everyone traded looks with each other. It was going to be a long afternoon.
I have a bad feeling that in TTL Bin Laden will never be caught and brought to trial.
Accurateworldwar
Banned
Something I just thought about just now, but how are the mafia and street gangs doing that operated in New York?
Bookmark1995
Banned
Well, considering he's put himself on the American radar by blowing up the embassies, it's only a matter of time until he is caught.
Wow, it's certainly been a while, but that last update really sucked me back into this story and I'd love to actually read your version of that debate, tho the outcome will be of course incredibly interesting. Because I haven't re-read the story, i'm not sure if this is correct or not, but, the implications here with this decision should have huge ramification for upcoming conflicts such as Somalia, and in some ways more importantly, Rwanda and Yugoslavia a couple years later.... not to mention America's potential relationships with many of the various Mid-East countries that we have treaties with (mostly for the sake of oil)...
In many ways, this reminds me of the episode "proportional response" from the West Wing and President Bartlett's issues with dealing with with the devil, as it were.
In many ways, this reminds me of the episode "proportional response" from the West Wing and President Bartlett's issues with dealing with with the devil, as it were.
Oh my god, it's back. I'm going to need to reread this all.
Have you thought perhaps of setting up threadmarks for the TL?
I've no idea what threadmarks mean.
Well, yes, Somalia will be infinitely more interesting since somebody's just made a trip there.
Well, if they didn't die, they aren't doing much of anything. New York City is, in a way, kind of like Snake Plissken's world. There's "border" crossings at any bridge or tunnel in and out of New York, with National Guard randomly inspecting vehicles and radiation scanners set up. Cops are everywhere. New York is as safe as a place can get, if you ignore the giant radioactive hole on the south part of Manhattan Island.
Bookmark1995
Banned
First of all, Manhattan in Escape from New York is not a good comparison. In the movie, prisoners dumped there were left to fend for themselves, turning it into a criminal wasteland. Early 1990s New York was nowhere near that level of lawlessness.
I assume that Las Vegas and to a lesser extent, Los Angeles, have also achieved a zero crime rate through the deluge of law enforcement running around.
But have the criminal enterprises vanished, or have they merely gone on to greener, less policed pastures?
I bet some Troll in this world suggested just walling off New York and turning into a prison- a radioactive prison - just to be a dick...
I used that comparison mainly in the sense that it is rather walled off from the outside, not that it was lawlessness. I get your point though.
New chapter? NEW CHAPTER!
LXXVII
April 29, 1993
Washington, D.C.
The White House
7:17 pm
“You can't just drop diplomatic relations with the Russians! This isn't 1920!”
“This isn't exactly a normal situation!”
“You think not talking to them will change anything?!”
“I know we can't stand by them after what we saw!”
The dialogue was heated, made all the more surreal by the scene of ex-presidents debating across the table with Cabinet secretaries. There was no consensus whatsoever, though, as the idealists of Clinton's cabinet were going squarely up against the pragmatist ex-presidents and their former aides. Rubin, Reich, Shalala, Reno, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, Secretary of Education Richard Riley, HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña, and Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary were on the idealist side, while Bentsen, Perry, Talbott, Powell, and Gore were siding with the Republicans in the room.
“Listen to me, all of you,” Nixon said. “You may think you're doing the right thing. You might think this will be a noble act, like Carter always tried to do. Remember where being noble got him! Sometimes you have to look at the big picture. If you cut Russia loose, they will mend fences with China in full, and we will lose the best chance we have to bring them into the fold of democracy, and we'll be right back in the 1950s again, except now China has nuclear weapons.”
“You're hardly one to talk about democracy, Dick,” sniped Rubin.
“Rubin, you're too short to have that big of a mouth,” Nixon fired back.
“For fuck's sake!” Everyone turned and looked towards the head of the table, where the President was very clearly fuming. “None of this is doing anything to help me decide what to do! If I stay close to Moscow, our allies are going to avoid us like we've got some sort of disease. If I cut Russia loose, they'll fall out of our orbit right after we got them into it, and that means they'll align with China, who is the only other large power. The Germans have a hell of a bill trying to deal with East Germany coming back into the fold, the Brits just got clobbered in the exchange markets last year....it's us and China, and even if someone like Germany were doing better financially, the Russians would never make a deal with them again after World War II. So, here's what I want an answer to: is there a way to walk a line between cutting them loose and staying close?”
“Bill, here's what I did in 1989,” Bush said. “I publicly condemned Beijing, we suspended travel and weapons sales, and I privately told them through Brent and Larry that it's in both our best interests to retain our relationships and for them to realize how their internal affairs hurt our ability to do so. Unfortunately, that did not work the way I'd hoped, as they really clamped down after Ceausescu fell.”
“You also vetoed that legislation that would've given asylum to the Chinese students here in America,” Lee Hamilton replied. “You could've asked us to hold off instead for a period of time, let us hold the bill until we knew how they'd act. That could've been a bargaining chip.” He saw several nods around the room.
Henry Kissinger's thick German voice cut in next. “Mr. President, I do not think that will work. The Russians are very prideful, and these are ultimately all men of the Soviet system, even if they do not use that name any longer. A public rebuke from you will only cause them to withdraw further into their shell. Ambassador Lukin is surely upset about this, being a liberal, but Rutskoy is a military man, and it is why he acted as he did, I expect. Furthermore, if he falls, we now have the entire Russian inventory of nuclear weapons exposed to instability two months after such weapons were used to murder very many Americans. That should be your only consideration in making this decision.”
Kissinger's words brought silence to the room. The President had reacted strongly to the attacks (albeit against the wrong target, most of this room knew), and was riding substantial levels of popularity due to the bipartisanship of his administration, most notably in its well-known consultation of people such as Bush, Baker, Nixon, and the like. That popularity would sink like a rock if another nuclear weapon touched any American, and the damnable thing was, Kissinger wasn't even talking realpolitik. He stated a simple fact that no person inside the Roosevelt Room could escape: any further Russian instability would mean a lot of loose nuclear weapons, and the world had already gotten far too much of a taste for that problem.
Clinton looked down, made some notes, and then issued his orders. Talbott was to send telexes to the major allies, inviting them to a summit in Geneva, neutral ground so Moscow wouldn't see this as a NATO action. Gore, Talbott, and Richard Holbrooke would go as the American team, and their goal would be to work out an acceptable response to the St. Petersburg violence that wouldn't drive Moscow away from the West. Clinton himself would both talk with the Russian ambassador and follow up with a call to Rutskoy. Hamilton, Espy, and legislative affairs director Howard Paster would begin a full-court press with Congress to try and keep them from passing legislation that would harm Russia's incredibly fragile economy.
The President was going to walk a line thinner than a supermodel, but he had no choice.
*****
May 1, 1993
6:00 am
UN-US joint command post
Mogadishu, Somalia
Major General Steven Arnold, commander of the 10th Mountain Division, watched the sun rise over the Arabian Sea. His soldiers had been in Somalia since December as part of the UNITAF deployment to aid this war-torn, starving nation. Somalia had once been considered a Cold War outpost, but Arnold looked around every day and wondered why anyone had considered this place to be worth spending a dime in. There wasn't enough money in the world to make Somalia be formidable, unless you did as UNITAF had and deployed tens of thousands of top soldiers and military gear to keep the peace, and this was a temporary deployment.
At least the view was nice, with long untouched beaches and clear blue skies. The heat was different than what 10th Mountain lived, trained, and typically deployed in, but that couldn't be helped. Arnold did his best to make sure his men got time to enjoy those beaches and that warm tropical water. This was a real hardship mission, and keeping men focused while performing any number of nonmilitary tasks could be difficult. Arnold had done several tours in Vietnam, and knew how important morale was, so his troops were given, in rotation, a day off a week to rest and enjoy the beach.
Turning away, the general's thoughts shifted to the countryside. This multinational structure made for tremendous difficulty in arranging cooperation when there were about a dozen different languages amongst the task force members, and no guarantees that everything would be translated correctly. The militias were, for the most part, staying peaceful. Arnold didn't expect that to last. It never did.
*****
Berbera, Somaliland
7:00 am
Bin Laden was pleased. Tuur's men were most helpful in setting up the compound, and everyone was settling in to their new quarters. Things would be more spartan than their previous locations, but these men had lived in mountain caves. Comfort was not an issue for them.
The most important task, once security and shelter were established, was to get the satellite set up. This close to home, bin Laden could more easily get Saudi TV, to gauge the mood of his people, to see the lies the regime told, and to plan how he would make his triumphant return, overturning a monarchy that had lbecome decadent in the flood of money the infidels of the West had showered upon them. It was up to him to restore the Caliphate, to unite the Muslims of the peninsula, and bring everyone back to the true faith. So many had died in Afghanistan, but he had won there, and, Allah willing, he would win again.
April 29, 1993
Washington, D.C.
The White House
7:17 pm
“You can't just drop diplomatic relations with the Russians! This isn't 1920!”
“This isn't exactly a normal situation!”
“You think not talking to them will change anything?!”
“I know we can't stand by them after what we saw!”
The dialogue was heated, made all the more surreal by the scene of ex-presidents debating across the table with Cabinet secretaries. There was no consensus whatsoever, though, as the idealists of Clinton's cabinet were going squarely up against the pragmatist ex-presidents and their former aides. Rubin, Reich, Shalala, Reno, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, Secretary of Education Richard Riley, HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña, and Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary were on the idealist side, while Bentsen, Perry, Talbott, Powell, and Gore were siding with the Republicans in the room.
“Listen to me, all of you,” Nixon said. “You may think you're doing the right thing. You might think this will be a noble act, like Carter always tried to do. Remember where being noble got him! Sometimes you have to look at the big picture. If you cut Russia loose, they will mend fences with China in full, and we will lose the best chance we have to bring them into the fold of democracy, and we'll be right back in the 1950s again, except now China has nuclear weapons.”
“You're hardly one to talk about democracy, Dick,” sniped Rubin.
“Rubin, you're too short to have that big of a mouth,” Nixon fired back.
“For fuck's sake!” Everyone turned and looked towards the head of the table, where the President was very clearly fuming. “None of this is doing anything to help me decide what to do! If I stay close to Moscow, our allies are going to avoid us like we've got some sort of disease. If I cut Russia loose, they'll fall out of our orbit right after we got them into it, and that means they'll align with China, who is the only other large power. The Germans have a hell of a bill trying to deal with East Germany coming back into the fold, the Brits just got clobbered in the exchange markets last year....it's us and China, and even if someone like Germany were doing better financially, the Russians would never make a deal with them again after World War II. So, here's what I want an answer to: is there a way to walk a line between cutting them loose and staying close?”
“Bill, here's what I did in 1989,” Bush said. “I publicly condemned Beijing, we suspended travel and weapons sales, and I privately told them through Brent and Larry that it's in both our best interests to retain our relationships and for them to realize how their internal affairs hurt our ability to do so. Unfortunately, that did not work the way I'd hoped, as they really clamped down after Ceausescu fell.”
“You also vetoed that legislation that would've given asylum to the Chinese students here in America,” Lee Hamilton replied. “You could've asked us to hold off instead for a period of time, let us hold the bill until we knew how they'd act. That could've been a bargaining chip.” He saw several nods around the room.
Henry Kissinger's thick German voice cut in next. “Mr. President, I do not think that will work. The Russians are very prideful, and these are ultimately all men of the Soviet system, even if they do not use that name any longer. A public rebuke from you will only cause them to withdraw further into their shell. Ambassador Lukin is surely upset about this, being a liberal, but Rutskoy is a military man, and it is why he acted as he did, I expect. Furthermore, if he falls, we now have the entire Russian inventory of nuclear weapons exposed to instability two months after such weapons were used to murder very many Americans. That should be your only consideration in making this decision.”
Kissinger's words brought silence to the room. The President had reacted strongly to the attacks (albeit against the wrong target, most of this room knew), and was riding substantial levels of popularity due to the bipartisanship of his administration, most notably in its well-known consultation of people such as Bush, Baker, Nixon, and the like. That popularity would sink like a rock if another nuclear weapon touched any American, and the damnable thing was, Kissinger wasn't even talking realpolitik. He stated a simple fact that no person inside the Roosevelt Room could escape: any further Russian instability would mean a lot of loose nuclear weapons, and the world had already gotten far too much of a taste for that problem.
Clinton looked down, made some notes, and then issued his orders. Talbott was to send telexes to the major allies, inviting them to a summit in Geneva, neutral ground so Moscow wouldn't see this as a NATO action. Gore, Talbott, and Richard Holbrooke would go as the American team, and their goal would be to work out an acceptable response to the St. Petersburg violence that wouldn't drive Moscow away from the West. Clinton himself would both talk with the Russian ambassador and follow up with a call to Rutskoy. Hamilton, Espy, and legislative affairs director Howard Paster would begin a full-court press with Congress to try and keep them from passing legislation that would harm Russia's incredibly fragile economy.
The President was going to walk a line thinner than a supermodel, but he had no choice.
*****
May 1, 1993
6:00 am
UN-US joint command post
Mogadishu, Somalia
Major General Steven Arnold, commander of the 10th Mountain Division, watched the sun rise over the Arabian Sea. His soldiers had been in Somalia since December as part of the UNITAF deployment to aid this war-torn, starving nation. Somalia had once been considered a Cold War outpost, but Arnold looked around every day and wondered why anyone had considered this place to be worth spending a dime in. There wasn't enough money in the world to make Somalia be formidable, unless you did as UNITAF had and deployed tens of thousands of top soldiers and military gear to keep the peace, and this was a temporary deployment.
At least the view was nice, with long untouched beaches and clear blue skies. The heat was different than what 10th Mountain lived, trained, and typically deployed in, but that couldn't be helped. Arnold did his best to make sure his men got time to enjoy those beaches and that warm tropical water. This was a real hardship mission, and keeping men focused while performing any number of nonmilitary tasks could be difficult. Arnold had done several tours in Vietnam, and knew how important morale was, so his troops were given, in rotation, a day off a week to rest and enjoy the beach.
Turning away, the general's thoughts shifted to the countryside. This multinational structure made for tremendous difficulty in arranging cooperation when there were about a dozen different languages amongst the task force members, and no guarantees that everything would be translated correctly. The militias were, for the most part, staying peaceful. Arnold didn't expect that to last. It never did.
*****
Berbera, Somaliland
7:00 am
Bin Laden was pleased. Tuur's men were most helpful in setting up the compound, and everyone was settling in to their new quarters. Things would be more spartan than their previous locations, but these men had lived in mountain caves. Comfort was not an issue for them.
The most important task, once security and shelter were established, was to get the satellite set up. This close to home, bin Laden could more easily get Saudi TV, to gauge the mood of his people, to see the lies the regime told, and to plan how he would make his triumphant return, overturning a monarchy that had lbecome decadent in the flood of money the infidels of the West had showered upon them. It was up to him to restore the Caliphate, to unite the Muslims of the peninsula, and bring everyone back to the true faith. So many had died in Afghanistan, but he had won there, and, Allah willing, he would win again.