Rogue Forces

“Okay, gents, I wanted to get this briefing from you because I know the Iraqis, Kurds, and Turks want to brief me soon, and I know they’re going to spin it their way; I wanted to get the first word from you. The word from the Turks is that they’re not doing anything except defending their homeland against the PKK and that the bombardment was a tragic but simple mistake. Let’s hear your take.”

“Roger that, sir.” The electronic display behind Wilhelm flared to life, showing a map of the border region between northern Iraq and southeast Turkey. “They’ve increased their Jandarma border forces over the past year or so, including special ops battalions, along with a few more aviation units, to help deal with the PKK cross-border incursions. They’ve sent a few regular army units to the southwest as well, perhaps one or two brigades.”

“Much bigger than normal deployments, I assume?” the vice president asked.

“Substantially bigger, sir, even considering the recent PKK terror attacks at Diyarbakir,” Wilhelm replied.

“And what do we have on this side?”

“Together with the Iraqis, sir—about a third of their force, and a fraction of the air forces,” Wilhelm replied. “The biggest threat is their tactical air forces in the region. Diyarbakir is home to Second Tactical Air Forces Command, responsible for the defense of the Syria, Iraq, and Iran border regions. They have two wings of F-16 fighter-bombers and one wing of F-4E Phantom fighter-bombers, plus one new wing of A-10 Thunderbolt Two close air support aircraft and one wing of F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bombers, recently acquired from the United States as surplus equipment.”

“Surplus F-15s—that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” the vice president said, shaking his head. “Aren’t they still undefeated in combat?”

“I believe so, sir,” Wilhelm said. “But with the recent drawdown of U.S. Air Force fighters in favor of Navy and Marines carrier-based tactical fighters, a lot of good Americans weapons came on the export market.”

“I know, I know—I fought hard to stop the outflow of such high-tech stuff,” Phoenix said. “But President Gardner is a real military expert as well as a big supporter of the Navy, and Congress was solidly behind his transformation and modernization plans. The Air Force got hosed, and countries like Turkey are reaping the benefits. If we can’t convert F-22s for carrier ops, Turkey is likely to get Raptors, too. Okay, soapbox over. Please continue, Colonel. What other threats are you facing?”

“Their larger antiaircraft systems such as the Patriot missile, large-caliber radar-guided triple-A, and British Rapier surface-to-air missiles are arrayed against Iran and Syria,” Wilhelm went on. “We can expect them to move some systems farther west, but of course Iraq is not a threat from the air, so I think they’ll keep their SAMs deployed against Iran and Syria. Smaller guns and shoulder-fired Stinger missiles can be encountered anywhere and are widely deployed in armored battalions.

“The Turkish Jandarma paramilitary forces deploy several special operations battalions, mostly to hunt down and destroy PKK insurgent and terror units. They get a lot of good training, and we consider them to be equivalent to a Marine recon unit—light, fast, mobile, and deadly.”

“Their commander, General Besir Ozek, was badly hurt in the last big PKK attack in Diyarbakir,” Patrick added, “but he’s apparently up and around and directing his forces in hunt-and-kill operations throughout the border regions. He’s undoubtedly the one who executed the rocket attack on Zakhu.”

“I definitely need to have a talk with him,” the vice president said. “So, Colonel, what’s your explanation for all this activity?”

“It’s not my job to analyze, sir,” Wilhelm said, “but they’re gearing up for an offensive against the PKK. They’re backing up the Jandarma with regular military forces in a show of force. The PKK will scatter and keep their heads down; the Turks will hit a few bases, and then everything will go back to relative normalcy. The PKK’s been doing this for over thirty years—Turkey can’t stop them.”

“Sending in the regular military—that’s something they haven’t done before,” Phoenix observed. He glanced at Patrick. “General, you are suddenly quiet.” He looked back at Wilhelm. “There appears to be disagreement here. Colonel?”

“Sir, General McLanahan is of the opinion that this buildup of Turkish forces in this region is a prelude to a full-scale invasion of Iraq.”

“An invasion of Iraq?” Phoenix exclaimed. “I know they’ve done a lot of cross-border raids over the years, but why a full invasion, General?”