BooksBarbecue
Back War with Russia Save as PDF
Chapters (60)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Foreword
  4. Preface
  5. Prologue
  6. PART ONE
  7. Kharkiv, Ukraine
  8. The President’s weekly defense and foreign policy meeting, The Kremlin, Moscow
  9. Comprehensive Crisis Operations Management Center (CCOMC), Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Belgium
  10. Briefing Room, Boryspill Air Force Base, Ukraine
  11. The Kremlin, Moscow
  12. Washington, D.C.
  13. Residence of DSACEUR La Belle Alliance, Erbisoeul, Belgium
  14. North Atlantic Council Conference Room, NATO Headquarters, Brussels
  15. Banks of River Daugava, Riga, Latvia
  16. Ādaži Training Camp, Latvia
  17. Riga, Latvia
  18. National Defense Control Center, Moscow
  19. Ādaži Training Camp, Latvia
  20. NATO Headquarters, Brussels
  21. National Armed Forces Joint HQ, Riga, Latvia
  22. Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Mons, Belgium
  23. Central European Time 1600 hours, Eastern Standard Time, The White House, Washington, D.C.
  24. Lielvārde Air Base, Latvia
  25. Lielvārde Air Base, Latvia
  26. Camp David, Catoctin Mountains, Maryland
  27. British Embassy, 5, J.Alunana Street, Riga, Latvia
  28. The Russell Arms, Butler’s Cross, Buckinghamshire
  29. HMS Queen Elizabeth Middle Slip Jetty, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth
  30. National Defense Control Center, Moscow
  31. Comprehensive Crisis Operations Management Center (CCOMC) SHAPE headquarters, Mons, Belgium
  32. Somewhere in the forest, Gauja National Park, Latvia
  33. 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London
  34. HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Baltic Sea
  35. Control Room, Kilo Class submarine Krasnokamensk, Baltic Sea
  36. PART TWO
  37. Prime Minister’s Office, House of Commons, London
  38. The Presidential Dacha Barvikha, Odintsovsky District of Moscow Oblast
  39. The White House, Washington, D.C.
  40. NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium
  41. Gauja National Park Forest, Latvia
  42. PART THREE
  43. “The Tank,” Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
  44. North Atlantic Council NATO Headquarters, Brussels
  45. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Cheltenham, England
  46. GCHQ, Cheltenham, England
  47. Forest south of Pravdinsk, Kaliningrad, Russia
  48. Headquarters, Kaliningrad Special Region, Kaliningrad
  49. The President’s Office, The Kremlin, Moscow
  50. Forest south of Pravdinsk, Kaliningrad, Russia
  51. Comprehensive Crisis Operations Management Center (CCOMC) SHAPE headquarters, Mons, Belgium
  52. Command Bunker, Iskander Missile Battery Pravdinsk, Kaliningrad
  53. Over Wroclaw, Poland
  54. Forest north of Pravdinsk Iskander Battery, Kaliningrad
  55. 25,000 feet above Kaliningrad
  56. Close to the Pravdinsk Iskander Battery, Kaliningrad
  57. Epilogue
  58. Glossary
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. Notes

1945 hours, Thursday, May 18, 2017

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Mons, Belgium

SERGEANT TAFF JONES of the Royal Logistics Corps eased the armored BMW into the purpose-built garage—the so-called “bat cave”—at the back of the large, gray 1960s building housing NATO’s Strategic HQ. McKinlay pulled himself out of the back seat, where he’d been working on a stack of papers. As he stood, he felt the usual sharp pain where his lower leg had been.

“It could be another long session in the office, Sergeant Jones.”

“No problem, Sir,” responded Jones. “I’ll be stood by whenever you want to head home.”

It had already been a long haul in Brussels. After the walkout by the German and Greek ambassadors in the NAC, there had been a cooling-off session. The NAC had met for an hour and a half in “ambassador-only” mode—with no officials present—during which the Secretary General had apologized for his remarks.

Diplomatic niceties satisfied, the NAC had then reconvened in full session to reconsider the declaration of Article 5, which would trigger the deployment of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force to Latvia. But the three ambassadors were unmoved and did not consider that events in Latvia warranted the declaration of Article 5. Moreover, such a move, they argued, would be an unnecessary provocation. Before any consideration of military measures, there would have to be a concentrated effort to resolve the crisis by political and diplomatic means.

Without full consensus, Kostilek had been able to do no more than state that he would continue to monitor the situation and confirm they would all meet again tomorrow.

The German ambassador had begun to ask whether even that were necessary, but an angry intervention by the US ambassador led him to withdraw his question.

It was pretty clear to McKinlay that the White House would be leaning heavily tonight on the Chancellor’s office in Berlin, the Bundeskanzleramt—that grandiose piece of modern architecture, ten times the size of the White House, and known with deadpan Berliner humor as the “Elefantenklo” or elephant’s crapper.

McKinlay, again attending in SACEUR’s place, had sat on through the inclusive debate. He needed to brief SACEUR on the nuances of the politics at play, even if he, as DSACEUR, was only responsible for the military implementation of any decisions.