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  Letters went to every Prince, every Emir holding a position in the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen; you name the person, we communicated with them. We constantly tried to reinforce the idea that we had nothing to do with the Ebola outbreak. It seemed as though we were speaking in tongues or to deaf people. No one believed us. The wrangle over Crimea and Ukraine that had been going on since 2014 made us appear to be the likely culprit in the Ebola attack.

  Kalil, seeing the responses of the Saudis and other oil rich Arab countries merely smiled to himself. He sent messages to his group of black shirted members of the ISIS forces. At least he sent letters to those whose lives had not ended in the bombing of their caravan. The letters told his brethren that a new day was coming, to be prepared and ready to attack, attack, attack. Kalil's plans were diabolical indeed. His Sword of Fallujah organized fifteen truck bombs that would be sent into the domains of Maliki and the Shia in Baghdad and Muqtadr Al Sadr and his Shia militias at the same time. Kalil's spies had done their work well. The truck bombs were meant to trigger additional explosions from war materials hidden by the Shia in various places. The effect, if achieved, would be disastrous for the Shia militias and would make it possible for the Sunni to triumph with “little opposition.”

  Then slowly things eased up a little as the Ebola virus ran its course in the sick and isolated area in which it was now located. And then one strange and horrible day the world went to hell in a hurry. At about two o'clock in the afternoon Washington time a nuclear explosion occurred in Donetsk, sometimes called the capital of the eastern Ukraine. It devastated the entire city, killing tens of thousands instantly, destroying age old buildings as well as those newly constructed.

  The government was not in session at the time, but all its representatives and officials lived within a ten mile radius of the capital building. They were killed, all of them. The power of the bomb was not huge by comparison to what would follow but it leveled an area of approximately thirty miles in every direction in which a mountain didn't slow the progress of the blast.

  All totaled well over a million Ukrainian people were killed or injured in the blast. And in the blast and fire effects of the bomb many thousands of ethnic Russians and disguised Russian soldiers died as well. The troops had been surreptitiously taking part in the separatist efforts of the ethnic Russians in the Donetsk area. There were well over ten thousand Russian troops involved. Most of the troops were killed.

  The “bloom” of the nuclear explosion was seen on every satellite within range. Some satellites had been placed in orbit by the Russians. Some had been placed there by the Chinese, the Japanese, the French and NATO via the French Ariadne series of launch vehicles and of course many had been placed there by the U.S. Some went dark within seconds after the explosion as a result of their components not being protected from the possibility of an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) effect. Most of those were older and most belonged to the Soviets or the French and NATO.

  The French, the British, the Germans, the Italians (nobody really expected them to fight if it came down to it), the Polish, among many other countries, were left pretty much in the dark as to what was going on between Russia and the U.S. But knowing the Americans were on high alert the French and British nuclear forces, as well as those of Israel, India and Pakistan were all alerted as precautionary measures.

  Instantly the U.S. forces went to Defcon 3, nuclear attack alert and status for response by every means possible if someone might have the temerity to launch on the U.S. One country did, that being North Korea. None of the nuclear forces of the U.S. were launched initially since the Korean threat was so remote. No one could believe that the Chinese would arm the Koreans with missiles that would reach the U.S. and the response, if any were to occur from the United States, could be managed quite well without those assets.

  A missile frigate sitting off the coast of Japan in the South China Sea saw the North Korean launch right away and launched an anti-missile in return. The Korean missile was destroyed at about 80,000 feet above the earth in a massive explosion that triggered the non-nuclear explosives on board the Korean bird. The Chinese radar systems had seen the launch, saw the second missile coming from the frigate which they routinely shadowed and saw the explosion of the two coming together.

  A Chinese battery commander who was a nervous type anyway and who secretly admired the dictator of North Korea, ordered his anti-ship battery to fire at the frigate. At first his battery men looked at each other. They all knew this would constitute an act of war against the United States. But they were soldiers after all and they obeyed their orders. Three Chinese missiles of the same type as the French Exocets of earlier years now called the Kong Di 88 were launched by this battery. The radar units “painting” U.S.S. Glenn remained on, as did the television cameras on these missiles. The frigate responded instantly with newer HARM type missiles that would attack the radar but would cluster bomb the entire area as well.

  The frigate, named the U.S.S. John Glenn, saw the launches from the mainland, knew that they were being “painted” and fired up by radar and heat seeking missiles that also had television capability. The frigate had defenses designed just for the purpose of bringing down the kind of missiles the Chinese fired. All three were splashed before reaching the frigate by missile or gunfire. The Chinese battery had to leave their radar on in order to guide their missiles and the battery was destroyed completely with substantial loss of life when the officer who had ordered the Frigate be fired upon failed to recognize that his facility was about to be attacked.

  The Chinese Army saw this activity and ordered the Air Force to respond. The Air Force launched a dozen of its older Su-30 planes with missiles designed to attack ships as well as those used for attacking aircraft. In addition the Jengdu 10's (comparable in capabilities to the U.S. F-16 and F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft) available near the area in which these events were unfolding were prepared to fight and then launched. There were more than twenty of those fine aircraft that sortied toward the U.S.S. Glenn.

  The Chinese planes had not cleared their own borders when a flight of eight F-15 Strike Eagles whose systems had been highly upgraded by the Formosans were sent to investigate from Taipei, Formosa. An additional flight of eight F-15 E's with their systems upgraded by the Formosan's as well were launched from Tainan, Formosa. The Chinese Jengdus did not see these planes right away and the SU-30's of the Chinese never did see them. The first eight Formosan Air Force planes were “painted with radar” by the Chinese Air Force planes from over fifty miles away and the Chinese planes fired missiles at the Formosan planes who in turn fired missiles at the Chinese aircraft. An International “Cluster Fuck” was well under way at that point. The Formosan aircraft from Tainan also fired missiles at both the SU-30's and the Jengdu 10's.

  U.S. Air bases in Japan and Korea, hearing of the launch on the U.S. by the North Koreans, seeing the response of the Chinese to that missile being splashed, began to load their planes for war. The North Koreans fired another ICBM. The second was hit by an anti-missile missile fired again from the “Glenn.” Several of the Chinese jets from the mainland got within range to launch their ship killing missiles. All totaled the Chinese launched at least ten ship killing missiles at the “Glenn.” All of them but one were shot down. The one that was not killed by the ship sank the “Glenn.” There were survivors but not many. The survivors would be picked up by Formosan boats The Chinese aircraft that had fired on the Glenn were all shot down by either U.S. or Formosan aircraft. In all the Chinese lost all of the SU-30 aircraft they launched toward the Glenn that day and half the Jengdu 10 aircraft. Mostly the losses of the Chinese were due to the Formosans being in constant awareness and firing early on the Chinese aircraft. The North Koreans, undaunted, prepared, watched by a satellite, a third launch. They launched just before the end of that first fateful day of the international cluster fuck. Another missile frigate, stationed just north of the Island of Okinawa shot at that third North Korean ICBM. The
hit on the Korean missile was enough to cause the payload to crash into the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles from Midway Island where it detonated one of its several nuclear warheads.

  In the dark of night, just after dark in fact, four F-117 Stealth Fighters killed the launch facilities of the North Koreans without the loss of a plane. The launch pads of the Koreans would take weeks or months to reconstruct. The support facilities including the underground bunkers that housed the North Korean computer systems necessary to the launch of ICBMs were all destroyed as well and those would take years to rebuild. The death of the computer center essentially ended the intermediate and short range missile threat to Seoul and South Korea in general except from shorter range missiles carried on mobile launchers. But the North Koreans had never acquired such sophistication with their nuclear arsenal that they could miniaturize sufficiently to mount nuclear warheads on short range missiles.

  The few ships of the Formosan navy that were in the rough area of the Glenn picked up the few survivors. The few planes that had been lost by the U.S., Japan or Formosa also had their survivors picked up. While the missile launch facilities of the North Koreans were virtually eliminated their army and air forces were not. Immediately after the first launch all U.S. forces in Korea went on alert, as did all South Korean forces with total call up of all able bodied South Korean veterans who were still capable of fighting. The situation there was out of hand. The situation with the Chinese began to calm when the U.S. began to pull its citizens out of the country. The loss of business activity was instant and the Chinese, ever mindful of economics, apologized for the “inadvertent actions” of a rogue officer who had been executed for his traitorous launch of planes and missiles at the U.S. ship.

  The Chinese, ever masters of the apology, offered reparations for the sinking of the Glenn and for the families of the lost seamen. This calmed the situation in respect to China but not as to Korea. China did say that as long as there was no invasion of North Korea that might threaten its borders China would stay out of any fracas between the North and South Koreans.

  The momentary detente with the Chinese allowed the U.S. to assist the South Korean Air Force against the North Koreans. Virtually all hard protective revetments that the North Koreans had created to protect their Air Forces were destroyed in one night. All their runways were so badly cratered, as were the taxi ways along side their air fields, that the North Korean air forces were eliminated in one night. What few North Korean aircraft that did escape the bombing went into China to be grounded.

  That left the A-10's of the U.S. and the South Koreans to strike under the cover of F-16s and F-15 Strike Eagles of the South Koreans and the F-35s of the U.S. along with the FA-18 naval aircraft of the U.S., at the columns of troops, tanks, etc. being marshaled by the North Koreans for an attack on the South. The North Korean army, a million plus in numbers at the beginning of that day, lost at least a third of their troops within thirty-six hours. They also lost almost all their transport systems, a large part of their tank brigades, and almost all of their helicopters and transport aircraft carrying airborne troops. All in all the vaunted members of the North Korean Army and other forces were badly treated by the South Koreans and the U.S. forces the first couple of days of the brief war in which they engaged. The South Koreans maintained an open channel with the Chinese to make sure that the Chinese understood there would be no northward thrust of South Korean forces if the North Koreans stood down. It was over the next day.

  The uneasy truce between North Korea and South Korea, with the U.S. as participants along lines of demarcation, resumed. But the Chinese influence on the North Koreans became of extreme importance to the continuation of that regime. China allowed the U.N. to bring in nuclear scientists. The U.N. representatives stripped the North Koreans of any further ability by missile or otherwise, to deliver a nuclear weapon in addition to destroying all their existing weapons, destroying all records of how to assemble or create a nuclear weapon. One thing good came out of the short war. That short war also gave the Russians pause for consideration of their desire to confront the American beast. But the events of Ukraine brought that to a head regardless of the Russians being cautious for a time.

  The tensions between Washington and Moscow had escalated all through the several days of the Korean fiasco. Nastiness was the hallmark of the communication between President Clinton and Premier Putin. He considered her a person of lesser import in part because she was a woman. That made the likelihood of real communication impossible from the outset. The world conflicts and troubles in the Middle East made him even more bellicose and unreasonable. She could not “give” much or she would be seen as weak not only by Putin but by her own military. And in the circumstance she must maintain control of the military. The mistakes of the Chinese and Russians already had shown her that necessity.

  In spite of the recommendations of her military adviser's advice, President Clinton backed off the military alert status to Defcon 2. That meant stand down of some weapons but readiness maintained for immediate launch of those weapons if necessary. The Russians appeared to be relaxing their nuclear forces as well and the world heaved a huge sigh of relief as a moment of sanity seemed to form in both countries. Sanity has a way of giving in to misunderstanding though. So does insanity. All over the Mediterranean Sea American ships patrolled at the ready. The same was true of the Indian Ocean where in addition to U.S. ships there were ships of the nation of India as well.

  Pakistan and India had co-existed with armed nuclear weapons aimed at each other for over 25 years. And the fingers of their leaders had been very close to the “buttons” during the crisis over the terrorist activities in Mumbai. The threat of Pakistan was now enhanced by the potential of a Shia caliphate running from Iran through Iraq into Syria and Lebanon with the possibility of even more area to be garnered by the Shia in the other “stans” of the former Soviet Union and of course in Afghanistan. Pakistan, seeing the threat of a loss by the Shia as a great possibility before the nuclear detonation in Ukraine, was more frightened after that occurred and immediately thought the Sunni had done the deed. They suggested that to the Russians. The Russians laughed at them and said it could not have happened that way or for the reasons suspected by the Pakistanis.

  We requested the Chinese to bring their “boomers” to the surface so we could see them. Though they were loathe to do so they complied with our request. The former Soviet fleet of “boomers” and other submarines aside from their attack subs had long since either been sold to China, India, Iran or North Korea. The satellite and drone system essentially watching all of North Korea knew exactly where their subs were located.

  The U.S. announced to China and North Korea that if the North Korean submarines made one belligerent move their entire sub fleet would be sunk. One general in North Korea thought that was hyperbolae and caused the launch of a cruise missile that narrowly missed the main government buildings of Seoul. The U.S. Navy sank a total of fifteen subs that day. The North Koreans had one left in dry dock and it was destroyed by a stealth attack from a Navy F-35 stealth fighter aircraft.

  The Russians threatened nuclear war if any further attacks occurred on North Korea. The Pakistani government, allied with Russia since 2018, announced its support for the Russians. India went to high alert. Israel went to high alert when Iran announced its support for the Russian statements against the U.S. A Pakistani pilot thought he saw a drone over the northern part of the country and fired several missiles at what he thought was a drone. He missed.

  The drone pilot was good and the drone was a stealth version just put into service that was armed with anti-aircraft missiles as well as air to ground ordnance. The drone pilot didn't miss. There were Indian aircraft in the area. The Pakistanis had just received very sophisticated radar systems from Russia and were not terribly good at using those systems yet. They saw the Indian aircraft, saw one of their own being destroyed and started firing ground to air missiles at the Indian aircraft.

 
The nearest of the three Indian aircraft carriers armed its planes and sent all its fighters toward the area of conflict along with AWACS aircraft in support. MIG 35 aircraft from Goa, in India also headed toward the area of conflict. The AWACS reported “seeing” what appeared to be a missile silo opening. It was, but for a ground to air missile attacking the flight of Indian SU-30 and MIG-35 aircraft. The air burst of the missile was larger than usual to the pilots of the Indian aircraft and it threw an instant mushroom characteristic of a nuclear explosion. The AWACS operators were not familiar with nuclear explosions and did not take the time to use their instruments to explore the type of chemicals in the explosion. They reported a nuclear blast. India opened its silos. Pakistan opened its silos.

  My boss was on the phone on one side of her head to New Delhi, on the other side of her head to Islamabad. She kept saying, “Gentlemen, please, calm down, let's talk for a few minutes. What can a few minutes of your time mean to all your people? The course you are headed down could potentially destroy both your countries.” Then she would sit and listen for a moment and then again she would begin, “Gentlemen, gentlemen, please, talk with me for a moment. Talk with me, not each other just for a moment.” Then she would listen again and then she would start all over again. This went on and on and on for what seemed like an interminable time. And then wonderfully we got word from satellite photography over India and Pakistan that the silo doors closed. Thank God, I kept thinking. What in the hell are they trying to accomplish? What in the hell is Russia doing here? Are they the instigators of all this?