Situation Room! IC

[Altaria87]

Steve Swanson

Swanson was finally back in his element, around a table, discussing plans of war.
"Ok, what I was thinking is that against Korea, we could bombard their coast with our Battleships and the like, probably drawing their entre army to meet us, meanwhile, we use our Air Force to drop paratroopers behind them and take out all their nuclear facilities, our superior navy should be able to hold out against them."
"Against Iran I think we should just do a gneral pincer movement, get our tanks to come in from the east, some elite soldiers and Marines from the west, and then just keep their army surrounded and take out their nuclear facilities, meanwhile, our vastly superior airforce, should, quite frankly, pwn them."

[Zid]

The joint chiefs seem to widen their eyes at the suggestions put forward by Swanson.

"Are you sure that this is what the president wants? It will open up two whole new fronts. With Iraq and Afganistan, our forces are already spread rather thin. We have the capability to wage war on both Iran and North Korea at the same time, but it wont be pretty."

[Voshkod]

Greene caught a quick catnap on the short hop back from Newark to Andrews on Air Force One. Back at his desk, another flurry of orders.

NRC/DOE - I want that isotope count on the fallout, and I want it now.

DHS/DOD - I need preliminary casualty figures ASAP.

White House Press Office - Tell the networks I'll address the nation at 9 PM.

SecState - Ask the Pakistanis to check the security of their nuclear arsenal.

Speaker of the House/President of the Senate - I would like Congress to consider passing a declaration of war against the prepetrators of this crime and any nation that supports them.

[Zid]

The air force officer who was in charge in the situation romm previously enters with a map marked "Top Secret". It contains the preliminary casulty figures based on computerized models and current demografics of New York City. Though very rough, the casualties are estimaded to be between 275 000 and 475 000. The bottom line reads: This does not include long term effects of radiation, but only those estimated to die within one month of sustaining their injuries.
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After a few hours, a clerk enters with a phone.

"Mr President," the voice says. "I am dr Howard, nuclear physicist and and professor at MIT. My team has studied nuclear fallout material taken from the NYC blast. After analysing isotopes, we have come to the conclusion that it was a uranium fission bomb of rather high quality and yield. The uranium used in the bomb comes from the Uranium fields in Central asia, probably Khazakstan, and likely the Stepnogorsk fields."

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The speaker of the house calls just a few minutes later. "So, she asks. What´s really going to happen now? You can´t possibly belive that I will start to prepare Congress to declare war without knowing what nation we are going to do it against?"

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Bogbog get a phone call later that night from one of his Pakistani contacts at the Pakistani ISI. "I don´t know what has happened here, but a lot of high officials seem very agitated. The phones have been going red the entire night."

[Altaria87]

Swanson

"Look, I'm under orders to shut down Iran and Korea's nuclear capability, got a problem with that?" besides, the President doesn't need to know exactly how we do this, all that matters is that we do, reosurces be dammed for once... "Besides, this isn't a war like in Afghanistan, this is just a straight sweep." ...Why else would he need me anyway? Greene's a great man, but he's no military strategist by nay stretch, so he can just leave this to us while he sorts out the PR

[Zid]

A rather obese army general slaps his hand in the table. "I for one has been in favour of nuking those **** muhllas into a glass desert for a long time! Good to see someone else got balls around here as well!"

In a general "kick-ass" spirit, plans are made to take out the Iranian and North Korean leadership by brute force. Swanson has to make a few descisions.

1) When do the plans need to be ready to execute?
2)How much involvment of ground personal is acceptable? None, small spec ops teams, limited invasions or grand scale assaults?
3)Is tactical nuclear weapons (bunker busters) an option?
4)How much collateral damage on buildings and civilians are acceptable?

[Altaria87]

General Swanson

"Ok then, we need th eplans reayd to execute in 48 hours- at most, use as much ground forces as we can muster, we need to end this quickly, nuclear weapons can be considered an option, but only as a last resort, I want colaterral damage to civilians to be minimal, though I give permsission to raze any buliding that stands in the troops' way."

[Zid]

One of the air force generals quit after half a day of planning, leaving the JCS as a protest of what´s being planned. He is quickly replaced with a more complacent general, and plans a put into motion and spread out to the troops. Now all they need is the OK from the president.