War Scenario

22 Shevat 5772

I've been reading various scenarios for the coming Paras/Edom war, so I thought I'd throw in my own excerpted from the unfinished story called The Desert's Secret written in 2010. It's not necessarily how I think it will play out now, but it certainly is one possibility. The military details come straight off of the internet.

...in Iran, the mullahs were convinced that Allah was fighting on their side. The Ayatollah decided that a first strike maneuver was in Iran’s best interests, so orders were issued for the Navy, the strongest arm of the Iranian military.

The US had four carrier groups patrolling the Persian Gulf. The USS Bermuda Amphibious Assault Ship carried three thousand marines; six vertical AV-HB Harrier attack planes; four AH/W Super Cobra helicopters; and twelve CH-46 Sea Knight & CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. It was accompanied by the amphibious transport dock ship USS Pine Bluff with eight hundred marines and the amphibious dock landing ship USS Portland with four hundred marines and one hundred-two commandos.

On the night of [March 4th], Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi received a communiqué at the Bandar Abbas Naval Base and immediately put the entire fleet on emergency alert. The officers of the Bladerunners attack speedboats were convened to receive their instructions. They and their Russian-made Shkval torpedoes were the frontline defense against the US carriers. These torpedoes were the fastest on earth and their speed rendered them invisible to radar. The enemy literally wouldn’t see them coming.

The USS Jimmy Carter Carrier Strike Group carried six thousand marines. The flotilla consisted of twelve warships, including a guided missile cruiser and a guided missile destroyer.

The Bladerunners set out just after midnight followed by two Kilo-class Russian diesel submarines with a cargo of mines.

The US carrier crews had grown quite indifferent to the on-again-off-again alerts. For literally years now, there had been talk of ‘imminent’ war with Iran. Nobody thought it would become anything more than talk for the foreseeable future; .... War seemed highly unlikely. And anyway, everyone knew how heavily the Pentagon depended on its air power.

Suddenly, with no warning, a tremendous explosion ripped through the bowels of the USS Bermuda. Then two more followed in quick succession. Before the new reality could register in their minds, the massive ship was going under; orange flames and the cries of dying men rising high into the night sky. Not one aircraft was able to get off.

The accompanying USS Portland was also hit, but not sinking. She was dead in the water. Marines were rushing either to make repairs or to locate the source of the attack in order to take retaliatory measures when the USS Pine Bluff off their starboard bow erupted into flaming, flying pieces of metal, some the size of a truck. It had made contact with one of the mines laid down by the Iranian sub after the Bladerunners had already cut and run.



***

A similar fate awaited the USS Jimmy Carter. The Strike Group was traversing the Straits of Hormuz when it came under attack. The wreckage left behind closed the Straits to commercial traffic, interrupting the world’s supply of oil.

When word of the mayhem reached the US Navy’s 5th Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain, an immediate call went out straight to the president, per Executive Order. When the US President wordlessly and solemnly hung up the phone, he paused for only a moment before issuing his first order of the War with Iran--- ‘Hit the internet kill switch.’

Pressure was brought to bear on the mainstream media to suppress publication of any details of what had just occurred in the Persian Gulf ‘in the interest of national security.’ The President scheduled a slot for an address to the nation...

Meanwhile, back in the Middle East, a missile war had begun in earnest. The US used its remaining ships to launch cruise missiles on all of the major Iranian cities. Iran answered with Chinese C 801 and C 802 anti-ship missiles from its coastline. Then they began sending Scuds into the US camps in Saudi Arabia. The Patriot anti-missile batteries set up in Bahrain and Qatar took out many of them, but a few still got through. It was quite a shock to the kingdom to find itself under attack.

Three days into the war and all was quiet on the Israeli front, but all of that was about to change…

President’s Briefing Room

The security briefing bringing the President up to speed on the war’s progress was ending when an aide approached with an urgent message. It was relayed to the President who nodded his assent.

‘Set up a conference call in the Communications Room in fifteen minutes.’

‘Sir!’ the soldier saluted and hurried to fulfill the will of his Commander-in-Chief. Exactly fifteen minutes later…

‘Mr. President,’ the Israeli Prime Minister looked nervous.

‘Make it quick. We’re rather busy here right now.’

‘Well, Mr. President,’ the PM cleared his throat. ‘I was wondering what you had in mind for us to do if we should come under missile attack?’

‘If it’s coming from Hezbollah in the north or from Hamas in the south, you’re on your own. You can bury them for all I care. But, hear me and hear me well, Mr. Prime Minister. You stay out of my way in Iran!’

The manner and tone of the President’s speech riled the Israeli Prime Minister. He sounded almost defiant when he asked, ‘And if Israel should come under direct attack by the Iranian madman?’

‘That’s why you have the X-Band,’ the President barked. His anger and impatience were beginning to show. He did not like Israelis. ‘Our people know what to do.’

The PM was not happy with that answer. None of the Israelis were comfortable with the idea of their main defensive weapon resting in the hands of non-Israelis.

In 2008, the US deployed an advanced high-powered radar system at Nevatim Air Base southeast of Beer Sheva. The AN/TPY-2 ‘X-Band’ system was accompanied by one hundred-twenty support personnel provided by EUCOM (European Command) to operate and ‘defend’ the US installation on Israeli soil. The Americans would only provide the system with the stipulation that it be staffed solely by US personnel. Israel would be dependent on American goodwill for the full eleven-minute warning of any incoming Iranian ballistic missile.

Suddenly, without signing off, the communication was terminated.

‘Chutzpah!’ pronounced the Prime Minister angrily to the blank screen. Then, with a wicked grin creasing his full face, he said under his breath, ‘Israeli chutzpah still trumps American chutzpah!’

…The Israelis went about their normal business in an air of increasing tensions, knowing that at any moment any one of them could become the target of the first missile to fall. No one entertained any illusions that Israel would get by unscathed.

There were greater numbers of military vehicles on the roads and the low roar of jets overhead never diminished. Some people decided astutely to lay in a few more groceries and drinks as if yom tov were coming.... TV and radio personalities speculated endlessly, but no one really listened. People were sunk in their own ruminations and anyway, the typical Israeli always understood that his own innate common sense made him a better informed person than any of the so-called experts.

The rabbis were calling people to repentance with a renewed urgency, even desperation. Deeply sensitive people understood that Israel was facing a crisis of existential proportions. A steady stream of people continued to flee the country, but almost no one was coming in.

...When it started, it was just as the prophet had forewarned: ‘From the North the evil will be released upon all the inhabitants of the land.’ Hezbollah was the one to bring Israel into the war that Iran had instigated. In the evening ... a salvo of twenty-five rockets came thundering over the border with Lebanon. They lit up the sky just as the sirens began to wail their warning.

Hamas joined in almost immediately, but strangely, Syria did not involve itself. Over the course of the next seventy-two hours, tremendous damage was inflicted on all sides of the war and untold numbers of people were dead or injured. Israel’s coastline was raked with missile strikes. Before it was over, we would lose the chemical company and oil refinery in Haifa; the power plant in Hadera; the oil refinery in Ashdod and the main electric grid in Ashkelon. Ben Gurion International Airport was the last to go, but by that time, it was like a ghost town.

Even so, as it was in the first Gulf War when Saddam Hussein fired thirty-nine Scud missiles into Israel, there were fantastic tales of hashgacha pratit and even open miracles. For no discernible reason, both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem remained virtually untouched...



***

…On the blazing hot desert sands of Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Coast, the 2nd Combat Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, known as the Marauders, was setting up its new base camp. They were located roughly in the middle of five divisions (approximately 60,000 soldiers) covering five miles of coastline between the King Abdulaziz Air Base and the King Abdulaziz Naval Base. This was in preparation for the launch of the US ground invasion of Iran to a spot just southeast of Bushehr.

The men tried not to complain, but it was only 7 am and already it was just so hot! Little did they know that it was about to get a lot hotter…


Office of the Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Tehran, Iran - 8 AM

‘The Jews have a saying---‘mida k’neged mida.’ It means measure for measure. The United States first introduced nuclear weapons into the world.... It is appropriate that we, as Allah’s representatives, will answer their aggression ‘mida k’neged mida.’ The Ayatollah addressed several members of the Council of Guardians in his private offices.

‘Sir, I have the General on the line.’ An aide stood by with a telephone in hand.

‘The wind direction remains unchanged?’

‘Yes, sir and no change is expected over the next forty-eight hours.

‘This is a historic moment, my brothers,’ the Ayatollah intoned as he took the telephone. ‘Launch the missile.’

He hung up the phone and turned again to his guests. ‘Today the Great Satan; tomorrow the Little Satan.’ They all got a good laugh out of that.

…One minute the sun was bright in the morning sky and then suddenly it was dwarfed by a second, brighter sun which erupted out of thin air. All that was left of the Marauders was their shadows burned into the Arabian sand.

Talk about ‘shock and awe,’ the aptly named American campaign at the beginning of its war in Iraq, the entire world was in shock and awe of what Iran had just done. Well, that is, all except the American citizenry who were still being kept in the dark by their Orwellian government and controlled media.

The world waited with bated breath to see if the US would nuke Iran back to the stone-age in retaliation. They waited and they waited. For three days, the world stood still, shaking in fear for what it knew must surely come.

Of those who had decided to stick it out in Israel, either out of ideology or because they had no place else to go, many of the survivors had gravitated towards one of the two largest cities, either Jerusalem, where it was felt that G-d would protect them or to Tel Aviv, where it was reasoned that the Kirya would be defended at all costs. The latter obviously did not know that Israel had moved its entire defense establishment into the newly built bunker inside a mountain near the entrance to Jerusalem.

In fact, as soon as the news had arrived, the entire Israeli government had relocated inside the bunker. All, that is, except for two. The Prime Minister and the President made excuses to explain their delay, while secretly arranging for a private jet to pick them up at the Atarot Airport and fly them to Rome. This dealt quite a blow to the morale of the remaining members of the government. Thankfully, the citizenry had not a clue about what was going on.

Well, that’s not entirely true. A number of them actually did. Like Eliyahu Hanavi and his circle of mekubalim...



***

…In the wake of Iran's nuclear attack on US troops in Saudi Arabia, the President had been in a round-the-clock meeting with his cabinet. Initially, they waited for accurate damage reports and recommendations from the field to come in. Twenty-four hours later, ... the President addressed the nation on TV and radio and broke the tragic news.

The American public mourned the losses as a family, but as soon as the first shock had worn off, they were screaming for vengeance. Taking to the streets had become the new American pastime. With all the political unrest and ruined economy, it had the feel of a third world country.

The antisemites were in their element. They laid all the blame at the feet of the Jews. Hadn't all these wars that had ultimately wrecked their economy and treasured way of life been instigated on behalf of Israel at the behest of their NeoCon agents in the American government? Gangs of Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and Militia members went in search of Jews upon whom to unburden their murderous anger, but strangely, none were to be found.

Jews seemed to be in short supply in America. Many, many died in the natural disasters that had devastated the coastal cities. Many less of the survivors, with eyes finally wide open, had fled to Israel while they still could. Those who unfortunately still remained were extremely careful to guard the secret of their ethnic identity.

The American government was split on whether to strike back, unleashing what could easily become a nuclear holocaust upon the world, or to swallow their national pride and absorb the blow .... The final decision would rest with the President.

The debate continued until the evening .... The President knew what his answer would be, but he declined to reveal it until the following day. He had his own reasons for the delay.

... Once again, as in 1967 there was talk of the 'Third Temple' falling. By this they meant the elimination of the modern State of Israel. The faithful however, continued to view it all as the footsteps of Mashiach which must surely give way to the complete redemption. Their hope was greater than it had been at any time in the past.

Office of the President
Undisclosed Location - 9 AM

The strident ring of the President's emergency line shattered the quiet breakfast meeting he was holding with his Chief of Staff, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and his Secretary of Defense. They all stared at each other, their eyes round with surprise and fright. It had to be about Iran. The Iranians had most probably taken the ongoing silence and inaction as a goad to move on to their next step---the annihilation of Israel.

The President activated the speaker so his guests could listen in. Their fears were justified. It was the EUCOM crew at the X-Band facility in Israel.

'Permission denied,' the President responded and he hung up the phone.

'What did you say?' queried the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, unable to believe his ears. The others gaped at the President in shock.

'Gentlemen, the time has come to right an historic wrong for which the world has paid very dearly until now. In approximately nine minutes, Israel will become a footnote in history. The entire world community has recently and simultaneously come to the same conclusions. The world will be a safer, saner place without Israel. The UN made a horrendous mistake in 1948 when it allowed it to come into existence in the first place. Now, destiny has placed me in a position to correct that historic error and I will not fail to live up to the challenge of this moment.'

Nevatim Air Base
Near Beer Sheva, Israel - 9:05 AM

'What happened? Was it the President? What did he say?' Staff Sergeant Drew McIlroy sounded baffled and panicky as he observed the look on Sergeant Major Ed Harris's face while he slowly put down the telephone. Why wasn't he rushing to sound the warning to the Israelis?

'He said only two words before he hung up---permission denied,' answered the Sergeant Major incredulously.

'What!? But, that's why we're here!' said the Staff Sergeant in confusion.

'No,' replied the Sergeant Major with the dawn of understanding. 'We're here so they won't be warned.' He felt as sick as he had ever felt in his life.

…Those who had placed their bet on the might of the secular Zionist state to save them lost their gamble when Iran's second one-kiloton nuclear bomb rode a Shahab-4 ballistic missile into the Azrieli Towers in downtown Tel Aviv...

***

Ground Zero
Tel Aviv, Israel - 9:11 AM

When the bomb exploded, it was like the supernova of a miniature star. The resulting flash of intense light was seen across the entire country. Anyone who looked at it was instantly blinded. Whatever body surface was exposed to it was burned.

[People on the streets] vanished in an instant as their bodies were vaporized; reduced to nothing more than a dark smear on the ground where they had stood.

A fraction of a second after the flash, a powerful shockwave led by a rolling black cloud surged outward from the epicenter at the speed of sound. It leveled the American Embassy, the Kirya Base, City Hall and the Diamond Exchange, as well as everything in between.

There was a highly radioactive crater, seventy meters deep and three hundred meters across where the Azrielli Towers once stood. For almost three kilometers in every direction, there was only smoldering rubble. Nothing was left standing and nearly every living thing had perished.

From that point out to Old Jaffa in the south and north to the Tel Aviv University everything was destroyed. The walls of all the hi-rise buildings were blown out. Only the bare, skeletal remains could be seen. Of the people who chose to remain, half were dead and the other half were dying.

Heavy blast damage extended to Herzliya, Petach Tikva, Yehud and Rishon LeTzion. All the windows were blown out along with the buildings’ contents. Most of the injuries in these areas resulted from flying glass and debris. Many were trapped in the rubble. Those managing to crawl outside were faced with darkness, fires and corpses---a living hell on earth.

In the immediate aftermath, a supernaturally mighty blast of wind rushed in from the east and drove the devastating radioactive plume far out to sea away from Eretz Yisrael. This was the wind that in time past had divided the waters of the Reed Sea.

Western Wall Plaza
Old City, Jerusalem - 9:12 AM

The phenomenal power of the blast sent a seismic wave charging across the coastal plain, through the Judean hills and straight into the mountains surrounding Jerusalem. The people huddled together in the Holy City screamed in terror when the earthquake struck. Those who were inside buildings were afraid that they would be buried alive. Those who were outside were fearful that the massive stone walls would collapse upon them. But, this was no ordinary earthquake. In fact, nothing would ever be ‘ordinary’ again.

Its destructive power was highly selective. The mosques and churches crashed to the ground in heaps while the yeshiva buildings swayed slightly and then settled firmly in their places. All those who were attached to false gods and had taken refuge with them died with them, while not one Jew suffered so much as a cut or scrape.

The same could not be said, however, for the government ministers and members of Knesset who had taken shelter inside the secret mountain facility at the entrance to the city. It shook to its very foundation and crumbled and collapsed, crushing everyone to death under hundreds of tons of solid rock. These rejected the covenant and so they were buried beneath the mountain.

Their legacy would be embodied in the last spark of electricity to flow through the facility before it, too, died. It would empower a computerized security system to fire off one final command. Attributing the destruction to a catastrophic attack, it triggered a failsafe mechanism that would ensure the enemy’s demise.

9:14 AM

It sent an urgent electronic message ordering the immediate launch of fifty-one Jericho III missiles armed with multiple nuclear warheads. From the underground caves east of Ashqelon and between Kiryat Gat and Beit Shemesh which served as their silos, the missiles rose like a swarm of angry bees. All of the survivors in Israel watched in stunned awe as the vapor trails arced across the blue mid-morning sky, winging their way to deal death and destruction to the enemies of Israel.

A communal gasp erupted as the true meaning and consequence of this sight suddenly sunk in. Forty-two missiles were designated for Iran; one for each of its nuclear sites and Tehran. The remaining nine missiles were headed to Cairo, Beirut, Ankara, Damascus, Amman, Baghdad, Riyadh, Mecca and Pyongyang. The North Koreans would no longer contribute their expertise to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

9:15 AM

As the people continued to gaze upward, a very strong aftershock hit. It shook the ground and rattled the windows along with everyone’s nerves. Just as it felt safe to stand upright again, their attention was drawn to the western wall. A loud, tearing, rending sound of structural failure was emanating from its direction. Shocked and terrified by all that had transpired in such a short span of time, the people could not rationally process what they were experiencing. Again, they began to scream in fear of those closest to the Wall being crushed under the massive ancient stones should it truly collapse.

But, it wasn’t the Western Wall at all, which continued to stand as steadfastly as it had these past two thousand years. Only those further back in the Plaza, up in the yeshivot, on the roofs and in the alleys of the upper city could see what was going on and the sight that met their eyes astounded more than all the others that they had seen so far. First the Al Aksa Mosque collapsed and then the Dome of the Rock swayed drunkenly from side to side before crashing to the ground in a great cloud of dust and debris.

All who saw it began to clap and cheer. Those who didn’t clamored to know what was happening. When they heard the cause of all the excitement, they all began to cry tears of joy because this was a clear and unmistakable sign that the long-awaited redemption had indeed arrived, albeit with more fanfare than anyone might have anticipated.

9:16 AM

The people standing in the archeological garden to the south of the Temple Mount suddenly started screaming and yelling. Those who had witnessed the fall of the mosques could not see what was happening over there, but water had begun to gush out of the ancient water channels that originate under the Temple Mount. This was the stream prophesied by Yechezkel HaNavi to flow from the mountain when the Third Temple would be rebuilt. The earthquake and its aftershock had broken the blockage.

We had always heard that ‘Hashem’s salvation comes in the blink of an eye.’ Only five minutes after Tel Aviv was struck a mortal blow, the Erev Rav regime was finished, the surrounding Arab/Islamic countries were out of commission, Achmad and the Ayatollah as well as the Qa’aba were so many swirling atoms caught up in the mushroom clouds’ updraft and the Temple Mount was free of Islamic domination for the first time in over 1300 years. The whole world had simply turned upside down.