Larry Bond, Jim DeFelice
Edge of War
The term “global warming” is as misleading as it is inaccurate. True, the overall temperature of the earth as measured by annual average readings will rise. But averages tell us next to nothing. A shortening of a rainy season by two weeks in a given area might be reflected by an increase in the average annual temperature of only a third of a degree. But the impact on the water supply — and thus the growing season — would be considerably higher.
Paradoxically, rapid climate change may bring much lower temperatures in many places. It should also be noted that some changes may well benefit people in the affected areas, at least temporarily, by extending growing seasons, negating weather extremes, or having some other unpredictable effect.
Unfortunately, the sensationalistic term, combined with the slow evolution of the effects prior to the crisis point, will make it hard to convince the general population of the true danger…
— International Society of Environmental Scientists report
United States Josh MacArthur, scientist
Mara Duncan, CIA officer
Peter Lucas, CIA station chief, Bangkok/Southeast Asia
Major Zeus Murphy, former Special Forces captain, adviser to Vietnam
People’s Army
Lieutenant Ric Kerfer, SEAL team platoon commander
President George Chester Greene
CIA Director Peter Frost
National Security Adviser Walter Jackson
China Lieutenant Jing Yo, commander, First Commando Detachment
Colonel Sun Li, commando regiment commander, executive officer Task Force 1
Premier Cho Lai
Vietnam Premier Lein Thap
General Minh Trung, head of the Vietnam People’s Army
Other Jimmy Choi, Korean mercenary
* * * “Peace Is What We Want” Chinese Premier Declares
Beijing, china (World News Service) — Chinese Premier Cho Lai declared today that Chinese troops would leave Vietnam as soon as peace was assured there.
“The dastardly attack on our border, killing dozens of innocent civilians, must be avenged,” declared Cho in an address to foreign ambassadors. “We will eliminate their capacity to conduct offensive war. When that is accomplished, Chinese troops will quickly withdraw to our borders.”
The reception was generally favorable. Western analysts say…
Heating Oil Shortage Continues in Maine
Bangor, Maine (AP-Fox News) — Residents in the Bangor, Maine, area shivered through their third day of record cold temperatures as heating oil deliveries continued to be sparse.
The shutdown of two major refineries due to environmental concerns is blamed for the latest shortage.
Ironically, much of the rest of the Northeast is undergoing one of the warmest late winters on record. But that isn’t helping Maine residents, who…
* * * Personal Chronicle: booking Back to 2014.
Markus:
When I wrote last I had taken the story up to late winter of 2014. Your uncle Josh had just found his way from behind the lines in Vietnam, returning to Hanoi with the help of the CIA and Navy SEALs. He thought he had escaped hell. The truth was, the worst part of his ordeal was just beginning.
I know it’s hard for you to imagine what the world was like in 2014. It’s probably impossible for you to think that the world believed China was innocent of aggression, or that its leader, Cho Lai, wasn’t bent on taking over the world.
How could we have ignored such an obvious threat?
It’s hard to explain, even looking back. People were under tremendous strains. Many of the world’s economies had crashed. There was a great deal of turmoil. Right around the time this happened, there was an election in Italy that saw the Communist Party take control of the government! This was something that had not happened even right after World War II, — when many of the partisans had been Communists. It was an incredible, stunning development. It just showed how crazed people were. The last thing they wanted was trouble with China, let alone a war.
Even America, which had been fortunate to escape the worst effects of the environmental changes, was struggling. China had become an important country financially — the U.S. owed it trillions of dollars. Many politicians were honestly reluctant to anger Premier Cho Lai, worried that he would order Chinese banks to start selling U.S. treasury notes and bonds wholesale. That would have sent interest rates soaring and destroyed our economy.
But many politicians were simply blind. They refused to see the threat, even when it was staring them in the face. Only when their own lives were threatened did they wake up. By then it was too late…
