Chapter 191

We made it to London in time to check in at the accommodations supplied by the government for VIPs. It was a Five Star + accommodations. I showered as did the rest of my family and put on a fancy evening gown by a world famous designer.

My family and I were going to be treated to a state dinner by Prime Minister Attenborough - another strictly political affair. In the UK - as elsewhere - the political standing pecking order determined who was invited.

You gained supporters in high places for crucial policies by helping them gain influence and power. State dinners and these kinds of events were stepping stones to that power. It was paramount to be seen with the right people and the right places. Top members from the Liberal Party, Conservative Party, Labor Party and several Muslims making their way up the political chain were introduced. One was the mayor of London.

It was three hours of prime bullshit foreign politicking. I don’t think I had ever had my picture taken with so many fake people. I wasn’t sure if the meal was worth the slime, but the meal was great.

I was scolded many times for my approach to the Iran war, with the Muslim mayor of London and several others nearly screaming at me. They were forcibly removed by security.

After a dozen rounds toasted with champagne that was awful by my standards, I was more than ready to go to the guest house. It took another half hour to get to the limos to carry us there.

My staff who were behind the scenes were waiting with today’s updates - and there were a lot of them, both military and political. We were five time zones closer to Iran, not that that changed anything. A moment in history was the same no matter what time the clock said.

Dozens of small towns and villages had been captured or surrendered today. At this rate it would take two weeks before the cities would be invaded.

The most important thing was that our causalities were few and theirs were many. The operational orders for the final stages of the war were the only prisoners they were to take were those who had surrendered. If they resisted and fought, the troops were to use an abundance of overwhelming force to kill them. They would be nothing but trouble in the POW camps.

I was not going to trade the lives of our soldiers in stupid battlefield tactics with enemy combatants. They could surrender quickly or die.

The political news was another thing. The BBC, ZNN and the White House press corps had - in one form or another - reported my whole speech. I expected it to cause turmoil in Congress and with the liberal stations.

While some Congressional members were vocal in opposition, many praised the speed of the offense.

Herman Payne, my Secretary of Defense, released the numbers that had died since the beginning of the operations. More had died in accidents than due to enemy action but the gap was closing. There had now been twenty rollovers with the new MRAP alone.

The Navy and Marines had lost twenty pilots and planes due to various causes. There had been two midair collisions involving attack helicopters.

Secretary Payne stated in the news conference he gave that I was furious about the rollovers with the MRAP and had ordered that a special investigative team investigate them immediately. I had also ordered that both the Marines and Army halt all deliveries of them until the investigation was complete and corrective actions taken if it was an equipment problem.

‘‘Oshkosh General Industries - the combined builder of the MRAP - was in deep six trouble as far as the President is concerned,’’ the SOD said.

The early reports indicated that multiple torsion bars were breaking under certain conditions causing the rollovers. I wanted the facts. If the torsion bar was the culprit, that meant that the problem was with every unit we owned and with those sold to our allies.

The US Army and Marines had thousands scattered around the world at various bases. The manufacturer had sold twenty five billion dollars worth of them and billions worth more were on order. Halting deliveries would force them to quickly come up with a corrective actions.

As it was an all-terrain assault transport vehicle, it was now a limited terrain vehicle. The heavy terrain work would have to be done with helicopters, A10s and foot soldiers, effectively slowing the operations.

Morning came and I was glad that the White House cooks came along. I didn’t think I could get by on tea and English muffins.

My mates and I separated shortly before nine. They and Ambassador Davies were off to see the sights. I asked my mates to pick up some souvenirs they thought I would like and some for my two secretaries.

My meeting with Prime Minister Attenborough started at 0900. I listened while his staff did what my staff did every morning - a security briefing both world and domestic. I listened to a detailed briefing on the Irish Republican Army. It seems they were dissatisfied again and planning disturbances.

I listened to the British view of world problems and their suggested remedies. It was a totally different view than I had.

Eventually they came to the Iran war. Their Chief of General Staff was critical of the bombing campaign and said that too many soldiers that could have surrendered and civilians were being killed, causing unnecessary collateral damage.

‘‘The Iranian’s have caused collateral damage all over the world for decades and celebrated each one, payback can be hell. Dead soldiers do not come back to fight another day, prisoners of war in that part of the world always do,’’ I said.

The conversation came around to the Russian agreement and what the effects would be on the foreign military bases.

‘‘If the Russians continue to comply - and all indications are that they will - there will be a realignment of US bases not only domestically but foreign as well. We would strive to keep bomber bases like RAF Fairford. I think what would happen would be to combine bomber and fighter bases, closing the fighter bases.’’ ‘‘Doing so would show savings to the bean counters yet still keep an effective fighting unit together,’’ I said.