Chapter 2

Within days the situation was out of control in Iraq. The deaths of Coalition soldiers began to grow each day and hit fifty in only one day after one particularly fierce fire fight in Tikrit. It was becoming increasingly clear that the Coalition forces had no friends in Iraq. After thirty days the Coalition forces pulled back to southern Iraq to regroup and nurse their wounds. The death toll of Coalition forces in the Iraqi war was approaching four thousand and Iraq was rapidly becoming engulfed in a civil war. As the Coalition pulled back there was a lot of military gear left behind. Some very sensitive NSA intelligence gear also fell into the insurgent's hands, giving them information on Iraqis that had been helping the Coalition spot the insurgents.

The civil war was fomented by Syria and Iran and both countries began to openly supply troops, ammunition and money to the insurgents. Iran called for sanctions against the countries in the Coalition and began to broadcast from their state radio that the Americans had set out to rid the world of the followers of Islam. That message was broadcast to every country in the world. There were scattered acts of terrorism and rioting in Europe and Africa.

Jawad al-Maliki sat at his desk and put his head in his hands. He had been afraid that this would happen. The attacks on the Green Zone were a daily occurrence now and several times the insurgents had gotten inside the compound only to be killed before they gained control of it. The Americans were urging him to abandon the Green Zone as it was becoming indefensible.

He had called a meeting of his cabinet to decide the next course of action. He was going to recommend that the cabinet pull back to southern Iraq with the Coalition and regroup. From there they could formulate a plan to regain control of the country.

His aide came into the office, "Sir, the Kurds have declared the northern provinces as a separate country. They have posted troops along the border and are stating that they are willing to fight to the last man for an independent state. Turkey has declared that they will invade the Kurdish areas if we allow the Kurds to break away."

Al-Maliki stared at the wall in front of him. It couldn't get any worse. He rose and asked if the Cabinet was ready and the aide nodded.

Al-Maliki walked into the room and nodded to his Cabinet. The look on their faces and his was grim and they wished to get down to business. Al-Maliki asked his aide to get him a coffee. The aide walked to the stainless steel coffee cart and pulled out a cup. He put the cup under the spout and turned the handle. The room was engulfed in flame and the blast blew body parts everywhere. It was impossible to determine who the arms and legs on the floor belonged to. One or two of the Ministers moaned and a minute later three men burst into the room and began to spray the bodies with bullets. The gunmen ran back into the hall and began to shoot anyone they saw. The gunmen wrecked havoc for about ten minutes before they were shot by the Marines that had been left behind to secure the Green Zone.

General Venes heard of the massacre about five minutes after it happened. He picked up the phone and called the Pentagon. Venes was told to stand where he was and he would have an answer as soon as they talked to the President. General Venes hung up the phone and stared at it for a minute. He knew that Iraq was hopeless now. He only hoped that he could exit his force without further casualties.

An aide walked into General Venes' office, "Sir I just had word that there is a large Iranian force headed for Basra. It appears to be at division strength. There are tanks and armored personnel carriers in the force."

"God damn," the General shouted.

He picked up the phone again and called his superior. After several minutes the Pentagon-based General came to the phone. When he was told of the situation Pentagon General told Venes to stand at his post and not to fire on the Iranians unless the Coalition troops were fired on. General Venes hung up and then told his aide to stand by the phone and that he wanted to see the Iranian force himself.

General Venes put on his bullet-proof vest and walked out of the building and started down the steps to find transportation. He had to try and see what the Iranians were up to. A Marine guarding the office building saw the General fall down the steps and land in a pile at the foot of the steps. He ran over to the General, thinking that the General had slipped or caught his heel on the step. The Marine saw the hole in the General's forehead and the small trickle of blood from the wound. The Marine dragged the General's body behind a building and called for help.

General Casey took the news of General Venes sniper shooting hard. Venes had been his go-to man when things had to be done and done fast and right. Now he had his top General dead and the Iranians causing more trouble.

The phone rang and General Casey answered it, "General Casey this is the President. We cannot allow the Iranians to take Basra. We have to buy some time to get a new government in place in Iraq. Stop the Iranians any way that you can. Challenge them first and if they refuse to turn back do whatever you have to do to protect Basra. General, I'm giving you the authority to do whatever you have to do."

General Casey picked up the phone and called his Navy counter-part and told him to have his jets loaded and ready for battle if they were needed. Within three hours he had a battle group ready to engage the Iranians if that were needed. If the Iranians refused to turn back they would be destroyed.

As he expected, the Iranians refused to stop their march on Basra. He called in the Navy air support and the Navy attacked the Iranians mercilessly. General Casey was surprised that the Iranians didn't send fighter planes from their bases in Iran to protect the division. Within a few hours the Coalition troops were moping up the operation and there were several prisoners taken.

The Iranians hadn't put up much of a fight and hadn't even been well-prepared for an invasion. General Casey thought that the Iranian generals were either stupid or the Iranians had something up their sleeves.

The next day Casey found out why the Iranians sent such an ill-equipped fighting force to do battle with the coalition. The Iranians went to the UN Security Council and began to denounce the Americans for destroying an Iranian humanitarian mission sent to bring food and water to the starving people of Iraq. The Iranian delegate said that Iran had the approval of the Coalition to bring food and water to Basra, but once the Iranian Army was inside of Iraq they were slaughtered. The Iranian President addressed the Security Council and demanded sanctions against the Americans and called for immediate withdrawal of all American troops from foreign soil. Casey knew that there had been no food or water on the military vehicles. Ambassador Bolton's reply to the Iranian charges fell on deaf ears. Many countries that had been allied with the USA began to talk to the UN Iranian delegation about changing the wording; hoping that the Iranians would soften the rhetoric a bit.

Within a week Iran had started calling for the Arab nations to stop the flow of oil to the Americans and all of the other coalition countries. Iran unilaterally stopped all oil production for Europe and America and told their people that it had to be done to stop American imperialism. Iran threatened Turkey with nuclear destruction if they allowed oil going through Turkey to be put on ships headed to America or Western Europe. Iran claimed to have developed the nuclear bomb secretly while the world was watching the wrong places and vowed to use it on any country that helped America.

Turkey caved in and refused to allow any ship going to the USA to load oil in their ports. Iran began to inflame the Turkish people over the "Hood Incident" when, in two thousand and four; the American troops had captured eleven Turkish troops and thirteen Turkish civilians in an Iraqi town and marched them through town with hoods over their heads. One of the Turkish soldiers had been so shamed by the incident that he committed suicide. Many Turks would never forgive the Americans for that.

General Casey received an urgent call from the President ten days after the Iranian division had been wiped out, "General Casey, our situation is critical. I order you to defend your position and prepare to pull all of our troops out of Iraq. I don't want anything left behind for Iraq or Iran to use. Anything that can't be removed from Iraq must be destroyed and left in such a condition that no one can copy the weapons. It will take about two weeks before we can get enough ships for an orderly evacuation. You must hold out until then."

"Yes Mister President," General Casey said as the phone went dead.

General Casey called his aide into his office and explained the situation. He issued an order for a defensive line to be fortified and that line was to be maintained at all costs. Casey called for a meeting of all senior officers in Iraq for eight o'clock that night. The aide left the office and Casey began to think of the mission that the President had given him. A fighting withdrawal was one of the hardest military operations and one that gave every leader chills whenever it was brought up in War College. Every military leader knew that many people would die during the withdrawal and his only hope was to keep the casualty figures as low as possible.

Casey called General Adams and ordered him to double the forces guarding the nuclear warheads that had been secretly shipped to Iraq. He was determined to get all of the warheads out of the country safely and to make an orderly withdrawal from Iraq. He was not about to let America be beaten by an inferior force from Iran.

General Casey called his aide back to the office and ordered that every woman be airlifted to the American ships waiting off the coast of Iraq. He knew what the Iranians would do to any captured female military personnel.

When he hung up the phone he was alone in the office for a while and Casey swore to himself that America would not go in shame, he felt that America's purpose in Iraq was an honorable one, and he vowed that his command would suffer the fewest casualties possible.

General Casey didn't know that the three Iranian Kilo class submarines that Russia had sold to Iran in nineteen ninety-two were, at that moment, mining the waters off of Iraq. The submarines had recently had a multibillion dollar overhaul, performed by Russian technicians, and were as capable as any sub in the world. France had secretly fitted the submarines with super quiet props and the subs were almost undetectable unless you knew they were coming and you had some idea of where they were.

The artillery guns of the Iranian Army began shelling the American forces and General Casey began to issue orders for the defense of his position.

Chapter 3