our close but misguided brethren in Al-Qaeda. No one could have withstood the accuracy of the Americans' fifteen thousand-pound bombs. And in that I include our close friends in Beijing.
'No, gentlemen, our path forward must be of a more subtle nature. Which is why we are so fortunate to have a former Western battle commander in our midst, and why we should pay heed to his words.'
The taller of the two hojjats rose and raised his hand. In deference, Admiral Badr nodded and sat down. 'Gentlemen,' said the cleric. 'Whatever we do, we run the terrible risk of bringing down upon us the full force of the United States military. Remember, just a while ago they smashed our submarine force, despite the fact we had done nothing against them.'
Without standing up, Admiral Badr interjected, 'And they just blew away the two biggest dams in Iraq for other reasons.'
Everyone nodded at that. But the hojjat continued. 'Should we not consider the present U.S. Administration may be just too tough, too powerful, for our country to grapple with? We hit at them, and they absorb it. Then they come back full of rage and venom against us, using weapons we can never match. Should we not consider a five- or ten-year cease-fire in our activities? Perhaps time for a new, soft left-wing government to gain power in Washington. They usually come up with a Clinton or a Carter in the end.'
'Your words are wise,' said the Ayatollah. 'But we must not forget or ignore our sacred duty, which is to create a large Islamic State in the Middle East, free of interference or reliance on the West, free of the Great Satan forever. And in that we have the assistance of the Chinese, who would like to buy all of our oil and indeed are very easy partners. They ask nothing of us, except trade and cooperation.
'One of the biggest oil pipelines in the world from Kazakstan to the Strait of Hormuz was paid for by the Chinese, and it runs right across our country, and we are the beneficiaries. No, I am afraid we cannot cease in our struggle. Unborn generations of our people will thank us, and we will receive the Grace of Allah for ridding our lands of the Godless devils from across the oceans.'
'Those also are wise words,' interjected the elderly hojjat from Tehran. 'But is there anyone who can explain to me how we can avoid the monstrous anger of the Great Satan upon our people? Perhaps I have been here too long. But I have seen much suffering and much heartbreak. I do not think I could bear to see more death and destruction rained down upon us. Particularly if, in the end, we had brought it upon ourselves.'
The senior Ayatollah placed his left hand on the right forearm of the old cleric. 'You are right to make us aware of the consequences,' he said. 'And I too have many concerns about future attacks on the West. I also observe that the United States is beginning a withdrawal of its own from the Gulf. Perhaps not totally, but partially.'
Admiral Badr looked up, saw the nod of recognition from the Ayatollah, and said, 'Your Holiness refers, I believe, to the determination of the White House to cease its reliance on Arab oil, and to tap into their own reserves on the Alaskan North Slope.'
'Precisely, Admiral,' replied the Chairman of the meeting. 'You will have noticed a few of the old U.S. contracts with Arab Gulf States have not been renewed, and indeed some of them have been taken up by China. The United States is already intending to become less reliant on oil from our region. His Holiness Grand Ayatollah in Tehran believes the day will come in the next one hundred years when the entire American continent, north, central, and south, will become one entity, isolationist, and completely self-sufficient in resources.'
'When we have eliminated the State of Israel, that will leave the Middle East, North Africa, and perhaps Muslim Central Asia to us,' said Admiral Badr. 'With, of course, cooperation from the Chinese. Perhaps along the lines of the old Ottoman Empire. Such a dream, a vast Islamic State, free to rule itself, free of the arrogance of the Jews… at last.'
He paused, and Commander Ben Badr looked up and caught the eye of the Ayatollah, who nodded his assent for the frigate CO to speak.
'I do not think the Americans will find it quite so simple as some people think to become reliant on Alaskan oil,' he said. 'This is a strong and forward-looking Administration, but America is packed with left-wing conservationists. They call them the tree huggers. And that Alaskan North Slope around Prudhoe Bay runs into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which has a protected status. Has been for twenty years or more. There is a lot of opposition and no guarantee the President will win.'
'Nonetheless,' replied Ben's father, 'they have already laid a major pipeline, running south from an area just beyond Prince William Sound, underwater I think, right into the northwest coast of the United States.'
Like all Naval officers, both Admiral Badr and his son talked of far-flung places as if everyone in the world spent as much time as they did staring at maps and charts. But the drift of the discussion remained on course: Should we continue to discourage the American Fleets from plying their trade in the Middle East, or should we sit back and allow them to drift away in their own good time?
'The fact is, they are never going to drift away,' said the Admiral. 'The United States is a strategic global giant. It sees its own interest in every corner of the world. The Americans see advantages for themselves everywhere. They like to keep an eye on Russia, India, and China. It suits them to have Carrier Battle Groups in our seas. They will never do what we want, and just leave.'
'And we, in turn, cannot drive them out,' said the Ayatollah, 'because of their Military and Naval power… and now perhaps would be a good time to hear from the Hamas Commander who has been kind enough to answer our call for help and direction.'
Everyone was in agreement, and General Ravi rose to his feet in the manner of one who had much to impart.
'I have listened carefully to the impressive and thoughtful opinions expressed here this morning,' he said. 'And I do not disagree with any of them. The West is more powerful than we are, and they have the capacity for ruthlessness on a scale we cannot match. However, we ought not to dwell upon that.
'If the objective is too difficult, then it is folly to pursue it. As the Americans might say, get yourself a brand-new set of objectives. Crude, perhaps, but perfect logic. In my opinion, there are only two things that unfailingly cause an enemy to back down, and the first one of those is sheer exasperation. Not anger, fury, and 'we'll get the bastards for this.' But careful studied exasperation. Like Gorbachev displayed when President Reagan threatened to wipe his nation out, from outer space if he had to.
'Gorbachev was not angry. He was not even frightened. He was just at the end of his tether, exasperated, frustrated, and running out of options. In the end he just threw up his hands, said 'screw this,' and gave in. I'm not sure he meant to take down the Berlin Wall and completely dismantle the old Soviet Empire. But that's what happened, so he just advised his nation to get on with living and trading. And he was right.
'And I believe that is what we need to do to the Great Satan. And here we have an even greater advantage than Reagan had over Gorbachev. The Satan has an Achilles' heel — it's called dollars. No nation in the history of the world has ever been more conscious of cost, profit, and wealth.
'Which makes our task doubly simple. We have to cause the United States to grow totally exasperated with us, fed up with the inconvenience, tired of endless rebuilding, and, above all, fed up with the cost. I do not believe in killing masses of innocent civilians. Instead, I suggest attack after attack on high-tech systems, machinery, and institutions. Things, gentlemen, things. And everything unattributable, done with absolute secrecy.
'That's the only way. Stretch them, stretch them far and wide. Stretch their resources until they break. Make them think they have to protect this, guard that, send aircraft carriers here, submarines there, troops somewhere else. Make them think the only way they can retain their global empire and trade routes is to guard the whole damn world from attack.
'That way they'll get good and fed up. They'll have those fourth-rate little Democrat Congressmen up and whining about the cost, complaining about the effect on the American way of life. They'll bleat themselves to death. But only if no one gets killed. If that happens they'll smash some nation to pieces again.
'We can get rid of the Americans. We just need to be more clever than we've been before. Or we'll end up like Afghanistan.'
General Ravi's words had literally slammed around the room because he was casting aside all of their preconceived ideas. Worse, really. He was standing everything on its head, trying to change the culture of decades of terrorism, making everything that had gone before somehow outdated, old-fashioned, improperly thought out.
Two of the Hezbollah representatives were talking quite animatedly, and it was obvious they agreed with not one sentence of his speech. Indeed one of them climbed to his feet and said, 'General, we do not think you should
