Free The War Planners by Andrew Watts Page B

America.  In the past, Natesh had filled white boards with things like consumer insights, software advantages, hardware designs attributes, and countless other service or product-oriented lists.  He looked at the rainbows of sticky notes on the board and thought to himself how innocent it looked.  And how within a year, one of these ideas may very well come to fruition and begin soaking the world in blood.
     
    *****
     
    The session lasted all day.  During lunchtime, the group ate sandwiches at their desks and went over Chinese military capabilities and strategy.  The afternoon was a share session.  Various members of the team provided amplifying information from their respective fields.  Brooke disclosed what she knew about the operation in Shanghai.  An expert on Asian Pacific politics and military gave his opinion on the Chinese military buildup over the past decade.  Henry said that several of the telecom companies he worked with had reportedly been hacked in the past few months.  Word on the street was that the Chinese were testing their security. 
      By 5 p.m., the constant talking had exhausted Natesh. The lead idea was becoming clear.  The best Chinese attack would be to overcome America’s strengths by somehow negating their technological advantages.  But the group still bickered back and forth on how that could be done.
    Bill was red-faced.  He said, “Look, you’ve still got five thousand reasons why the Chinese couldn’t attack us.  And each one of them has got a nuclear tip.  Uncle Sam’s got submarines ready to fire off their missiles at a moments notice, and they can’t possibly have all of those boomers located.  There are US air force bombers and missile silos that are still playing the same cold war game: deterrence.  It doesn’t matter that China doesn’t want to launch nukes on us.  If they try to attack us on land, we will launch nukes on them and obliterate their attacking force.  Even our current liberal-ass president would use a nuclear weapon if someone were attacking his house.  Excuse my politics.”
    A few people grinned.  Most ignored the jab.
    “He’s right,” said Brooke.  “Not only that, but American communications and navigation technology is best-in-class.  We have more technologically advanced ships, aircraft, and weapons that can do real damage at long range.”
    “It’s called hyper war,” said one of the military officers.  “Speed is the key factor.  We can talk about China head-faking with a war in Iran till we’re blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is, if America really wanted to, we could mobilize a global attack that would destroy a majority of Chinese military assets within 24 hours.”
    Natesh rubbed his eyes, “But I thought we had discussed this.  These technologies rely on a few key activities to take place, correct?  So if those activities are removed, there goes the advantage.  This—”
    Another of the military officers in the front row said, “Natesh, look...military strategy isn’t like in the business world.  We aren’t talking about apps on your smartphone.  We’re talking about complex, interwoven technologies like the navigation systems in an F-18 and the GPS smart bombs it carries.  We have technologies like the secure data link that connects all of our armed forces so that they can combine each other's sensor data and look at one enhanced battle picture.  There isn’t one silver bullet that could take out all of these technological advantages and eliminate the nuclear threat.  I appreciate that we’re all here trying to prevent a war.  China’s nothing to scoff at, certainly.  But we’ve been talking about different ways to do it all day and I just don’t see how this threat can go beyond just that...a threat.”
    There were nods of agreement in the audience as others backed up the idea of American superiority.  Brooke said, “There’s just no way for China to overcome the technology