Drone Command (9 page)

THE PENTAGON

ARLINGTON COUNTY, VIRGINIA

7 MAY 2017

I
t was Lane's first trip to the Pentagon as president.

Hell, his first trip ever.

The enormous five-sided structure was synonymous with American military power. In reality, the seven-story building was 3.7 million square feet of office space connected by seventeen and a half miles of corridors. Its most important occupant was a civilian bureaucrat, the secretary of defense, who ran the federal government's oldest and largest bureaucracy, and the country's single largest employer, with more than two million active-duty and civilian personnel.

Big bureaucracy, big office building.

The most important room in the Pentagon office complex was the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) conference room, long known as the Tank, located on corridor nine in the outermost E ring on the second floor (which is really the main floor) near the river entrance.

The legendary Tank was where the highest ranking flag officers of the U.S. armed services hashed out the most important security issues of the day.

Today was unlike most days in the Tank. In a symbolic gesture, President Lane left the White House and crossed the Potomac in order to meet with the chairman of the JCS and the other service chiefs.

Ironically, despite their supreme military ranks, none of the service chiefs had any operational authority, including the chairman of the JCS.
Only the president and, by extension, the secretary of defense, could order troops, ships, and planes into battle. Civilian control of the military was a central tenet of Western liberal democracies. Militaries were by their nature antidemocratic and, presumably, a threat to democratic institutions if left unchecked. Democracies were also peaceful.

Or so the theory went.

In reality, the DoD and the respective military branches were far more risk averse than their elected counterparts, especially since the failure of Vietnam. In recent years, it was usually the Pentagon that had to be dragged into war by presidents, not the other way around. The Pentagon prepared for war but, whenever possible, did everything in its power to avoid it, in part because the politicians often went into war without a clear sense of the goals or conditions for victory. The men and women who did the actual fighting and dying were loyal to the core but had very little interest in sacrificing themselves in unwinnable wars.

Despite their merely advisory role, however, the chiefs carried a great deal of weight with their respective services as well as with Congress. If they spoke, you listened, even if you were the commander in chief. Especially if they spoke with one voice.

Today they did.

The chiefs were concerned. War between China and Japan appeared imminent. And because of America's de facto treaty obligations and strategic interests, that meant war between China and the United States. A war that must be avoided at all costs. And it could only be avoided, in their opinion, by confronting the PRC with a significant show of force. This they all agreed upon. But that was about it.

Many urgent questions remained. The chiefs wanted answers and time was running out. The president had choices to make.

Now.

This was Lane's first foreign policy crisis. It would set the tone for the rest of his administration and communicate to America's friends and enemies around the world what kind of global leader the inexperienced young president would be. Khrushchev's perception of JFK's weakness at
their first meeting in the 1961 Vienna summit led directly to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, just a trigger pull away from World War III.

Lane's problem now was his continued policy of “no new boots on the ground.” His critics feared this sent a clear signal to America's enemies that the United States was withdrawing from its strategic responsibilities—the moral equivalent of waving a red flag in the bull's face, if not a white one. But his opponents also knew the American people were tired of war, and “no new boots” was wildly popular.

Lane stared at the constellation of stars as he entered the Tank. As a former air force captain, his first instinct was to salute, but he resisted the ingrained habit. After all, he was the boss now. He was the first president since George H. W. Bush to have served in active-duty combat. But Lane still felt the butterflies in his gut. Nearly two hundred collective years of distinguished and accomplished military service sat in front of him. Four earned doctorates and eight master's degrees between them, too. Flag officers were notoriously political creatures, but these were also extremely serious people.

His decision to hold the line on the federal budget freeze initiated during the Myers administration didn't win him any friends in the room, either. Military budgets were frozen in place despite the Pentagon's endless clamoring for increased funding to meet ever-increasing global threats.

Lane was accompanied by Secretary of State Gaby Wheeler, Secretary of Defense Bren Shafer, and National Security Advisor Jim Garza. These were serious people, too, in their respective spheres. And political.

The JCS agreed to meet privately, without the usual crowd of vice chairmen, staff officers, and other “horse holders” in attendance. Introductions were dismissed, formalities set aside. Stout navy coffee was served along with tea and bottled water as the chairman took his customary seat at the head of the enormous blond conference table. The other chiefs sat in their flanking positions. President Lane took the seat on the far end, flanked by his civilian coterie.

Secretary Wheeler played video clips of subtitled Japanese newscasts, along with shaky handheld Internet video of the Chinese trawler's attack on the Japanese dive boat. Everyone had already seen them, but Wheeler
wanted the events fresh in their minds. The Chinese had kicked the hornet's nest. Hundreds of Japanese marched in angry protests throughout the nation, among the largest and most violent demonstrations in the postwar period.

“The Chinese claim the Japanese attacked them first, earlier in the day. Claim the Japanese tried to ram them, drive them away from one of their prime fishing grounds,” Wheeler said. “It's all bullshit, of course. Including the official protest they've sent to Tokyo.”

“The CIA analyzed the video and identified at least two of the so-called Chinese fishermen as members of the Ministry of State Security,” Garza said. “A boatload of bad-ass leg breakers sending a message.”

“It's a helluva message,” Chairman Onstot said. He was a four-star air force general with a chest full of combat medals, badges, and ribbons, all earned the hard way. “The Chinese have staked out a claim and they intend to defend it.”

“No one was killed, thank God,” Wheeler said. She didn't add that the diver was still in critical but stable condition at a local hospital.

“It was an act of violence nonetheless. And probably the last one without bloodshed. The next step will be escalation,” Shafer said. He'd already been through the ringer with the JCS earlier as they laid out their frank concerns over recent Chinese actions. The SecDef largely agreed with their assessment, but even the chiefs weren't entirely unanimous on a course of action, which was why he insisted the president meet with them today.

Shafer was a former chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the perfect person to bridge Lane's political and experiential gap. Lane was viewed by establishment Washington as a country rube from Texas despite his six years in Congress, armed only with boyish good looks, a second-rate state university degree, and an excellent combat record.

But it was the four-leaf clover shoved in Lane's pocket the old hands most deeply resented. Dumb luck had won him the presidency in their opinion.

If Senator Fiero's campaign hadn't been sunk by the mysterious and incriminating Bath leaks, she'd be the one sitting in the Oval Office
today, not Lane. Fiero was a known commodity. Easy to work with. She understood how the game was played.

Likewise, his presidential predecessor, Robert Greyhill, whose reelection campaign was doomed from the start thanks to the self-serving betrayal of his vice president, who was caught on tape recommending the execution of the American war hero Troy Pearce. Pleading ignorance of Gary Diele's crimes only made former president Greyhill appear even more incompetent and out of touch than he was commonly portrayed.

That left Lane, a genuine outsider, as the last man standing. He beat Greyhill handily despite the hundreds of millions of dollars of soft money poured into Greyhill's campaign coffers, but Lane won with less than half of eligible voters participating.

Shafer's role was to groom and guide the new president into a prudent course of action. The power players behind the known faces in Washington—the money men from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and even overseas—needed to be sure that Lane could be counted on. Shafer all but guaranteed it.

Shafer genuinely liked Lane and was charmed by his clumsy campaign rhetoric, even when he stole the line from JFK's famous inaugural, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” It was a hateful message for the rabid left wing of his party—the social-justice warriors, fourth-generation welfare moms, and Occupy Wall Street progressives—but centrist Democrats and moderate Republicans loved it.

Lane was worried. China was, without a doubt, a regional threat and increasingly a global one as well. The conventional solutions to the China problem didn't interest him—ignoring or provoking them would only lead to an escalation of the crisis, if not war. That's why he turned to Pearce and Myers for a private brainstorming session months ago, and that's how the three of them came up with their current plan. Huge payoff, low risk—except for Pearce and Myers. Both of them understood the risk. Accepted it without flinching.

Lane turned to Chairman Onstot. “Okay, General. Let's lay this thing out.”

The chairman flashed a digital projector. A regional map appeared. He highlighted features with a laser pointer.

“The Chinese are clearly becoming more aggressive, not only in the East China Sea, but in the South China Sea as well, pushing out to the so-called nine-dash line. The nine-dash line—”

“—is the Chinese historical claim to the waters and territories in the region,” Lane interrupted. “Disputed by every other nation in the area.” He wasn't about to let the chairman treat him like a junior officer at an ROTC luncheon. “Move on.”

“It's also part of the First Island Chain Doctrine,” the chairman continued, somewhat humbled. He ran the laser pointer from the Malay Peninsula in the south to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the north, touching on Taiwan, the Philippines, and the Japanese islands in between. “In the event of war with the United States, Chinese military doctrine calls for preemptive strikes on all of our naval and air bases and other significant assets, including carrier groups, in this geographic chain of archipelagos in order to secure the Chinese mainland from American attack.”

“The strategic importance of the East China Sea to Chinese military doctrine can't be overstated.” This from the marine corps commandant.

“Beyond expanding its nuclear capabilities, the primary emphasis of China's massive military buildup over the last ten years has been to develop weapons and assets that will enable them to carry out the First Island Chain Doctrine,” the admiral said. “That's the primary reason they've acquired their first aircraft carrier and pushed their conventional ballistic-missile programs forward. As I'm sure you're well aware, Mr. President, the Chinese have been increasing their annual defense spending by double digits over the last decade, even as we've been cutting back, both in terms of spending, but also in actual force reductions, especially in naval assets. They're getting stronger even as we weaken.”

“But President Sun is a reformer, not a hardliner,” Wheeler said. “Our ambassador has met with him several times. Assures me he's a reasonable man.”

“I'm sure he is, but like you said, he's a reformer. He's had to pick and choose his battles. In order to wage his domestic anticorruption
campaign, he's given a freer hand to the PLA and the foreign policy hawks. The Chinese economy has its own problems, and securing ECS resources for themselves will go a long way to sort those out.”

“So why not let the Chinese secure the ECS?” Garza asked. “How is our national security threatened by this move?”

Lane picked Garza to be his NSA because the former Green Beret was unafraid to ask the hard questions.

“Because Japan will feel forced to respond,” Wheeler said, nodding at the silent looping Japanese video on the screen. “Imagine if China suddenly claimed the Gulf of Mexico and all of its natural resources as sovereign Chinese territory. We'd feel compelled to respond vigorously, especially if Chinese warships suddenly turned up outside Houston or New Orleans.”

The marine corps commandant nodded in agreement. “And if the Chinese grab the ECS, they'll feel emboldened to grab the South China Sea as well. Maybe even Taiwan.”

“Okay, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Spratlys—let China take it all. How does that actually threaten us?”

“Don't you know the history of Red China? Murdering tens of millions of their own in the Cultural Revolution? Their ground war against us in Korea, their proxy war against us in Vietnam?” The marine general's voice seethed. “China is our greatest geopolitical challenger. A world dominated by Communist China is a world that none of us in this room want to live in.”

“Ever heard of Tibet?” Wheeler asked, sarcasm dripping.

“So, I'm hearing domino theory 2.0, is that it?” Garza was throwing Vietnam right back in their faces. “You're fucking kidding me, right? Next thing you'll tell us is that we have to win their hearts and minds.”

Lane tried not to laugh. The Tank was famous for its frank discussions. Garza was laying it on thick, but Lane had told him to. He needed to see where the chiefs really stood.